US and China have signed a trade deal, says Donald Trump

BANGKOK: The US and China have signed an agreement on trade, President Donald Trump said late on Thursday. "We just signed with China the other day," Trump said.

US Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg TV that the deal was signed earlier this week. Neither Lutnick nor Trump provided any details about the agreement.

Lutnick said the deal was "signed and sealed" two days earlier.


It was unclear if the latest agreement was different from the one Trump announced two weeks earlier that he said would make it easier for American industries to obtain much-needed needed magnets and rare earth minerals. That pact cleared the way for the trade talks to continue, while the US agreed to stop trying to revoke visas of Chinese nationals on US college campuses.

Later, on Friday, Trump said his July 9 trade deadline was not a fixed date, telling reporters at the White House: "We can do whatever we want. We could extend it. We could make it shorter. I'd like to make it shorter. I'd like to just send letters out to everybody: Congratulations, you're paying 25%," he said.

Beijing confirms framework
China's Commerce Ministry said Friday that the two sides had "further confirmed the details of the framework." But its statement did not explicitly mention US access to rare earths, minerals used in high-tech applications that have been at the center of the negotiations.

"China will approve the export applications of controlled items that meet the conditions in accordance with the law. The United States will cancel a series of restrictive measures taken against China accordingly. It is hoped that the United States and China will meet each other halfway," it said.

"The president likes to close these deals himself. He's the dealmaker. We're going to have deal after deal," Lutnick said.

China has not announced any new agreements, but said earlier this week that it was speeding up approvals of exports of rare earths, materials used in high-tech products such as EVs.