US-China Trade Truce Signed

The agreement in Geneva involved significantly reducing tariffs on each other for 90 days while they tried to hammer out a comprehensive trade accord. The deal had faltered, however, over disagreements about Chinese rare earth exports and US export controls.

The purported deal comes as the Trump administration works to reach broad agreements on trade with multiple partners ahead of a July 9 deadline when “reciprocal” tariffs the president announced in April would be reapplied. Those levies, of up to 50 per cent on most US trading partners, had been temporarily lowered to 10 per cent for 90 days to allow foreign countries to negotiate.

US officials have since been holding intensive talks with countries including India, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan and the EU to reach permanent settlements.

So far, only the UK has reached a trade agreement with the US, while China has secured lower “reciprocal” tariffs of 10 per cent following a period of tit-for-tat tariff increases. Trump has also left in place additional tariffs of 20 per cent on all Chinese imports, citing Beijing’s failure to slow the flow of precursors of the drug fentanyl from China.

The administration is also looking at applying global tariffs to imports in sectors including semiconductors and consumer electronics, aerospace parts, lumber, copper, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals.