Trump says China ‘not easy' as trade talks to resume Tuesday

The Star

17 hours ago

Trade talks between the US and China will continue into a second day, according to a US official, as the two sides look to ease tensions over shipments of technology and rare earth elements.
Representatives for both nations ended their first day of negotiations in London after more than six hours at Lancaster House, a 19th century mansion near Buckingham Palace. The talks concluded around 8 p.m. London time. The advisers will meet again Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the British capital, the official said.
"We are doing well with China. China's not easy,' Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. "I'm only getting good reports.'
The US delegation was led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The presence of Lutnick, the former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO, underscored the importance that export controls are playing in these discussions.
Bessent told reporters in London they had a "good meeting', and Lutnick called the discussions "fruitful.'
The Chinese delegation was led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, who left without commenting to the media. With him was Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and his deputy Li Chenggang, the country's trade representative.
Wang has become a fixture in the entourage of President Xi Jinping on overseas trips since he was appointed in 2020, while Li is a veteran trade bureaucrat and was previously ambassador to the World Trade Organization. The Ministry of Commerce can be seen as the counterpart to both the US Department of Commerce and the Office of the Trade Representative.
The US signaled a willingness to remove restrictions on some tech exports in exchange for assurances that China is easing limits on rare earth shipments, which are critical to a wide array of energy, defense and technology products, including smartphones, fighter jets and nuclear reactor rods. China accounts for almost 70% of the world's production of rare earths.
Specifically, the Trump administration is prepared to remove a recent spate of measures targeting chip design software, jet engine parts, chemicals and nuclear materials, people familiar with the matter said. Many of those actions were taken in the past few weeks as tensions flared between the US and China.
Trump was noncommittal about lifting export curbs, telling reporters "we'll see' when asked about the possibility of such a move.
"China has been ripping off the United States for many years,' the US president said, while adding that "we want to open up China.'
The Trump administration expects that "after the handshake' in London, "any export controls from the US will be eased and the rare earths will be released in volume' by China, Kevin Hassett, head of the White House's National Economic Council, told CNBC earlier in the day Monday.
Hassett's comments from Washington were the clearest signal yet that the US is willing to offer such a concession, though he added that the US would stop short of including the most sophisticated chips made by Nvidia Corp. used to power artificial intelligence.
"The very, very high-end Nvidia stuff is not what I'm talking about,' Hassett said, adding that restrictions would not be lifted on the Nvidia H2O chips that are used to train AI services. "I'm talking about possible export controls on other semiconductors which are also very important to them.'
Chinese shares trading in Hong Kong entered a bull market, as some investors expressed hope the talks signaled a cooling of trade tensions. In the US, traders drove stocks higher, with the S&P 500 within 2% of its February peak.
The first round of negotiations since delegations from the countries met a month ago is aimed at restoring confidence that both sides are living up to commitments made in Geneva. During those discussions, Washington and Beijing agreed to lower crippling tariffs for 90 days to allow time to address a trade imbalance that the Trump administration blames on an unfair playing field.
Despite that truce, trade didn't recover in May, with Chinese exports to the US dropping by the most since the start of the pandemic and imports from the US down by almost 20% in May.
A phone call last week between President Donald Trump and Xi appeared to give fresh momentum to reaching a deal. US-China trade tensions escalated this year as Trump hiked duties on Chinese goods, prompting retaliation from Beijing. That's led to pain in both economies, including uncertainties for businesses trying to navigate sudden changes in trade policy. - Bloomberg