The Trump administration is welcoming the prospect of a new trade deal with China , which could restore bilateral relations to where they were before the US president imposed the latest round of tariffs.
According to officials, the agreement will include the restart of purchases of American soybeans by China, the suspension for one year of Beijing's new rare earth licensing regime
and theWhat exactly will be agreed remains to be seen when President Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea next Thursday.
However, the measures already mentioned point to an attempt to return to the previous situation, before Trump triggered a new trade conflict with Beijing at the beginning of the year.
As US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant reported on ABC News, negotiators from the two countries reached a substantive framework in Malaysia over the weekend that will be discussed at the summit.
He said that the planned 100% increase in US tariffs on Chinese exports, which was due to take effect on November 1, has now been averted.
According to Bessant, China agreed to postpone the implementation of the new licensing system for rare earths for a year and to help the United States combat the illegal flow of chemical raw materials for the manufacture of fentanyl. In addition, it committed to significant purchases of agricultural products from American producers.
US Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, described the soybean agreement on social media as great news that restores balance to the market and ensures prosperity for years to come for American producers.
However, critics point out that the Trump administration is trying to present as a success the resolution of a crisis that it itself created.
China had stopped buying soybeans from the US in early 2025, in retaliation for the tariffs imposed by Trump on Chinese products in April.
Accordingly, although Beijing had long been developing its rare earth licensing regime, the acceleration of its implementation came in response to American measures and technology export bans on thousands of Chinese companies.
Paul Triolo, a consultant at DGA–Albright Stonebridge Group, called Trump's strategy of escalation for de-escalation, which he called a lost cause.
He said this is the fifth round of talks focusing on Chinese restrictions on rare earths, with no substantial progress. Both sides can harm each other, he said.
The only thing that has been achieved is the reduction of market shares for all the companies involved.
The Trump-Xi meeting may bring other agreements, as Chinese officials have hinted that they could make further purchases of American products or even investments in the US.
Bessant, in an interview with NBC, said that balanced trade and President Trump's global peace plan will also be on the table.
However, the talks are much less intense than during Trump's first term, when his team spent months negotiating a multi-page agreement covering a wide range of issues - from intellectual property and banking to agriculture.
On Friday, the Trump administration announced a new investigation into possible Chinese breach of the terms of that agreement.
Jonathan Jin, an analyst at the Brookings Institution, noted that Xi Jinping comes to the meeting having announced China's new five-year plan, which emphasizes a shift toward high technology and manufacturing. These goals clash with long-standing American concerns about unfair trade practices.
Nevertheless, he noted, the essential issues are absent from the agenda.
What strikes me, Jin said, is that we’re not even talking about the big, serious issues that were at the core of the original dispute. We’re discussing isolated issues like TikTok or soybeans as if they were corporate disputes.
