US, China Reach Trade Deal Framework Ahead of Xi-Trump Talks

By Staff, Agencies

The US and China have agreed a framework for a trade deal just days before US President Donald Trump and Chines President Xi Jinping are due to meet.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the deal, reached at the Association of south-east Asian Nations [ASEAN] summit in Malaysia, averts 100% tariffs on Chinese imports set for November 1 and includes a “final agreement” on Tiktok’s US sale.

Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for the summit, his first stop in a five-day Asia tour that is expected to culminate in a face-to-face with Xi in South Korea on Thursday.

After the talks, the US president struck a positive tone, saying: “I think we’re going to have a deal with China.”

Bessent said China said it would “delay” the export controls on minerals used in fighter jets, smartphones and electric vehicles for a year as part of the truce.

China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, said both sides had reached a “preliminary consensus” and will next go through their respective internal approval processes.

“The US position has been tough,” Li said. “We have experienced very intense consultations and engaged in constructive exchanges in exploring solutions and arrangements to address these concerns.”

There were also hopes of a truce between the US and Brazil after what President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described as a “positive” meeting with Trump in Malaysia. Their respective teams will start “immediately” to discuss tariffs and other matters, he said.

An agreement between the US and China reduces the chances of an all-out global trade war that threatened car production across Europe and the UK.

Months of rising trade tensions followed Trump’s April “liberation day” tariff threat, as Xi resisted 100% tariff pressure by curbing rare earth exports and halting US soybean purchases. Trump accused Beijing—controlling most global rare earth output—of turning “hostile” and holding the world “captive.”

“I think we have a very successful framework for the leaders to discuss on Thursday,” Bessent told reporters after he and US trade representative Jamieson Greer met Chinese vice-premier He Lifeng and Li for their fifth round of in-person discussions since May.

Bessent said he anticipates that a tariff truce with China will be extended beyond its 1 November expiry date, and that China will revive substantial purchases of US soya beans after buying none in September and instead sourcing the crop from Brazil and Argentina.

US soya bean farmers “will feel very good about what’s going on both for this season and the coming seasons for several years” once the deal’s terms are announced, Bessent told ABC.

Greer said both sides agreed to pause some punitive actions and found “a path forward where we can have more access to rare earths from China, we can try to balance out our trade deficit with sales from the United States.”

Tensions between Brazil and the United States have also escalated since August when Trump increased tariffs on imports of most Brazilian goods to 50% from 10% in August.

“We agreed that our teams will meet immediately to advance the search for solutions to the tariffs and sanctions against Brazilian authorities,” Lula said in a social media post after the meeting.

Trump had linked the tariff move to what he called a “witch-hunt” against Jair Bolsonaro, the South American country’s former president.