• Beijing pledges to curb fentanyl trade, pauses export controls on rare earths
• Expresses interest in Alaska pipeline project, agrees to purchase US oil and gas
• US delays curbs on Chinese firms tied to sanctioned entities

BUSAN: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had agreed with President Xi Jinping to trim tariffs on China in exchange for Beijing cracking down on the illicit fentanyl trade, resuming US soybean purchases and keeping rare earths exports flowing.

Trump’s face-to-face talks with Xi in the South Korean city of Busan, their first since 2019, marked the finale of a whirlwind Asia trip on which he also touted trade breakthroughs with South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian nations.

The deal, according to Beijing, also included a US pledge to delay for a year a new measure — strongly opposed by China — to bar thousands of Chinese firms from receiving US technology if they are part-owned by a sanctioned company.

“It was an amazing meeting,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One shortly after he left South Korea, ranking the talks a “12 out of 10”.

Trump said tariffs on Chinese imports would be cut to 47 per cent from 57pc, by halving to 10pc the rate of tariffs related to trade in fentanyl precursor drugs.

Xi will work “very hard to stop the flow” of fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid that is the leading cause of American overdose deaths, Trump said.

China agreed to pause export controls unveiled this month on rare earths, elements with vital roles in cars, planes and weapons that have become Beijing’s most potent source of leverage in its trade war with the United States.

The pause would last for a year, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement.

China agreed to buy 12 million metric tonnes of US soybeans through January, and to purchase 25m tonnes annually for the next three years, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business Channel’s “Mornings with Maria” programme.

He said China had approved an agreement to bring short video app TikTok under US-controlled ownership, and he expected it to move forward in coming months.

China also agreed to purchase oil and gas from the US, Trump said in a Truth Social post. Bessent later said Xi also unilaterally expressed interest in participating in a new US pipeline being built in Alaska, but gave no details.

Washington, meanwhile, will suspend for one year new Entity List restrictions that make it harder for Chinese firms to use affiliates to buy off-limits technology, as well as suspending measures targeting China’s maritime logistics and shipbuilding sector, Bessent said.

Trade experts said the agreement offered a one-year reprieve from tensions that have weighed on global growth, but cautioned that China had failed to meet its purchase agreements under the Phase 1 trade deal signed during Trump’s first term, and geopolitical tensions could reignite the trade war at any time.

Trump repeatedly talked up prospects of reaching agreement with Xi since US negotiators on Sunday said they had agreed a framework with China to avoid 100pc US tariffs on its goods and defer China’s export curbs on rare earths.

US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, in a post on X on Thursday, said Trump’s statements on the summit should not be believed. “Trump folded on China,” he wrote.

The cordial meeting between the leaders, at a South Korean air base on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, lasted more than 1-1/2 hours.

It was normal for the two sides to have frictions now and then, Xi told Trump via a translator, as they faced each other, flanked by their delegations.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2025