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BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA – OCTOBER 30: US President Donald Trump (R) speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a bilateral meeting at Gimhae Air Force Base on October 30, 2025 in Busan, South Korea.
Andrew Harnick | Getty Images News
US President Donald Trump said he had reached a one-year deal with China on rare earths and critical minerals and halved Beijing’s fentanyl tariffs after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping ended in South Korea on Thursday.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he left South Korea that the meeting with Xi was “amazing” and that “a lot of decisions were made.”
“The rare earth issue is settled,” Trump said, adding that it was a one-year agreement that would be negotiated every year. Tariffs on Chinese exports will also be reduced to 47 percent from 57 percent, he said.
In return, Beijing will “work very hard to stop fentanyl” and resume purchases of US soybeans and other agricultural products.
Trump said he would go to China in April, followed by Xi’s trip to the United States, without specifying a schedule.
It was the first meeting between the two leaders in six years, with the meeting lasting one hour and 40 minutes.
Before the meeting, two leaders struck a conciliatory tonewith Trump calling Xi an “old friend” with whom he has a “very good relationship” and Xi stressing that China’s economic growth ambitions will not undermine Trump’s “Make America Great Again” vision.
Tensions between the world’s two economic superpowers have boiled over this year. The latest escalation came this month with Beijing export control and Washington threatens to ban exports of Chinese-powered software.
In recent days, the U.S. has shared details of deals it hopes to strike with China, from curbing the flow of fentanyl to the U.S. to splitting TikTok from Beijing-based parent company ByteDance. Tariffs, technological restrictions and rare earth elements were also on the table for discussion.
Beijing was more cautious about the prospects for a deal, but in a possible sign of thawing relations, China bought its first cargoes of U.S. soybeans in months, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
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