Trump says rare earths deal and tariff cut agreed with China More stories here

Trump says rare earths deal and tariff cut agreed with China

Donald Trump has said that Washington and Beijing have settled their dispute over rare earths after crucial trade talks with the Chinese president in South Korea.

According to China’s commerce ministry, a consensus had been reached during recent talks by both sides’ trade teams in Kuala Lumpur, which included a reduction in Trump’s “fentanyl tariff” imposed on Chinese goods, along with reciprocal measures by Beijing to suspend export controls.

After the talks in Busan, Trump told reporters tjat Xi Jinping had agreed to work “very hard” to prevent the production of fentanyl. In return, Trump said he would lower fentanyl-linked tariffs from 20% to 10%, thereby lowering overall tariffs from 57% to 47%.

What else was agreed? Trump said China would axe its restrictions on rare earth exports, in a deal he said would last one year before being negotiated annually, and also buy US soya beans.
Was Taiwan discussed? No. And while Ukraine was discussed, Trump said that the topic of Chinese use of Russian oil was not really discussed.

Trump has directed the Pentagon to “immediately” match other nuclear powers in their testing of nuclear weapons, specifically citing Russia and China.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said: “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.” The message was posted less than an hour before Trump met Xi in South Korea on Thursday.

When did the US last hold a full nuclear weapons test? In 1992 – and neither China nor Russia are known to have held any such tests since the same period. It is unclear what weapons testing could take place.