The US and China thrashed out their trade fight for 20 hours. Here’s what they agreed to

Singapore: US officials said Chinese restrictions on the export of critical rare earth minerals and magnets had been resolved under a preliminary deal to resurrect a fragile trade truce struck in Geneva last month.

Emerging from two days of intense discussions in London, US and Chinese negotiators said they had reached a new framework committing to the original trade deal struck on May 12, which almost unravelled in a dispute over China’s export curbs on rare earths and US controls on technology sales.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, second right, departs following trade talks at Lancaster House in London.Credit: Bloomberg

The new agreement still needs to be signed off by both US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Both sides offered few concrete details about what had been brokered over almost 20 hours of discussions.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the framework would put “meat on the bones” of the original deal, and that the dispute over rare earths would be resolved as a “fundamental” part of the new agreement.

“We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,” Lutnick said after the talks wrapped up on Tuesday evening in London.

“The idea is we’re going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it.”

China’s Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang also said a trade framework had been reached that would be taken back to US and Chinese leaders for approval.

“The two sides have, in principle, reached a framework for implementing the consensus reached by the two heads of state during the phone call on June 5th and the consensus reached at the Geneva meeting,” Li told reporters.

A phone call between Trump and Xi last week rescued the negotiations, and led to the talks in London this week. No further talks are planned at this stage.

As the discussions got underway in London, Trump said he was getting good reports about the proceedings, while adding: “China’s not easy.”

The US delegation was led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Lutnick. The Chinese delegation was led by Vice Premier He Lifeng.

Since April 4, as part of its retaliation to Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff war, China has suspended exports on seven kinds of rare earth metals and the magnets made from them. They are critical for the production of cars – particularly electric vehicles – defence technology and wind turbines.

Rather than an outright ban, China required exporters to obtain special licences for each shipment, but approvals from Beijing slowed to a trickle, triggering alarm in the car industry, which issued panicked warnings about critical shortages.

US and Chinese officials have agreed to resurrect a fragile trade truce after negotiations following a breakthrough phone call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.Credit: AP

Under the Geneva trade truce, both sides agreed to wind back sky-high tariffs and other countermeasures for 90 days in a bid to de-escalate tensions and broker a more fulsome trade deal.

But tensions ratcheted again after the US accused China of continuing to strangle the supply of rare earths and retaliated by pausing the sales of chip design software and plane engine parts to China.

Lutnick indicated that the US would remove its retaliatory barriers under the new framework.

“Also, there were a number of measures the United States of America put on when those rare earths were not coming. You should expect those to come off, sort of as President Trump said, in a balanced way.”

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.