Trump cuts tariffs on China after meeting Xi in South Korea
[October 30, 2025]
By JOSH BOAK, CHRIS MEGERIAN and MARK SCHIEFELBEIN
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump described his
face-to-face with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday as a roaring
success, saying he would cut tariffs on China, while Beijing had agreed
to allow the export of rare earth elements and start buying American
soybeans.
The president told reporters aboard Air Force One that the U.S. would
lower tariffs implemented earlier this year as punishment on China for
its selling of chemicals used to make fentanyl from 20% to 10%. That
brings the total combined tariff rate on China down from 57% to 47%
“I guess on the scale from 0 to 10, with ten being the best, I would say
the meeting was a 12,” Trump said. “I think it was a 12.”
Trump said that he would go to China in April and Xi would come to the
U.S. “some time after that.” The president said they also discussed the
export of more advanced computer chips to China, saying that Nvidia
would be in talks with Chinese officials.
Trump said he could sign a trade deal with China “pretty soon.”
Xi said Washington and Beijing would work to finalize their agreements
to provide “peace of mind” to both countries and the rest of the world,
according to a report on the meeting distributed by state media.
“Both sides should take the long-term perspective into account, focusing
on the benefits of cooperation rather than falling into a vicious cycle
of mutual retaliation,” he said.
Sources of tension remain
Despite Trump’s optimism after a 100-minute meeting with Xi in South
Korea, there continues to be the potential for major tensions between
the world’s two largest economies. Both nations are seeking dominant
places in manufacturing, developing emerging technologies such as
artificial intelligence, and shaping world affairs like Russia’s war in
Ukraine.
Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs since returning to the White House for
a second term, combined with China’s retaliatory limits on exports of
rare earth elements, gave the meeting newfound urgency. There is a
mutual recognition that neither side wants to risk blowing up the world
economy in ways that could jeopardize their own country’s fortunes.
When the two were seated at the start of the meeting, Xi read prepared
remarks that stressed a willingness to work together despite
differences.
“Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye to
eye with each other,” he said through a translator. “It is normal for
the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then.”
There was a slight difference in translation as China’s Xinhua News
Agency reported Xi as telling Trump that having some differences is
inevitable.
Finding ways to lower the temperature
The leaders met in Busan, South Korea, a port city about 76 kilometers
(47 miles) south from Gyeongju, the main venue for the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation summit.
In the days leading up to the meeting, U.S. officials signaled that
Trump did not intend to make good on a recent threat to impose an
additional 100% import tax on Chinese goods, and China showed signs it
was willing to relax its export controls on rare earths and also buy
soybeans from America.
Officials from both countries met earlier this week in Kuala Lumpur to
lay the groundwork for their leaders. Afterward, China’s top trade
negotiator Li Chenggang said they had reached a “preliminary consensus,”
a statement affirmed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who said
there was “ a very successful framework."
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President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake
hands before their meeting at Gimhae International Airport in Busan,
South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Shortly before the meeting on Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social
that the meeting would be the “G2,” a recognition of America and
China’s status as the world’s biggest economies. The Group of Seven
and Group of 20 are other forums of industrialized nations.
But while those summits often happen at luxury spaces, this meeting
took place in humbler surroundings: Trump and Xi met in a small gray
building with a blue roof on a military base adjacent to Busan’s
international airport.
The anticipated detente has given investors and businesses caught
between the two nations a sense of relief. The U.S. stock market has
climbed on the hopes of a trade framework coming out of the meeting.
Pressure points remain for both US and China
Trump has outward confidence that the grounds for a deal are in
place, but previous negotiations with China this year in Geneva,
Switzerland and London had a start-stop quality to them. The initial
promise of progress has repeatedly given way to both countries
seeking a better position against the other.
“The proposed deal on the table fits the pattern we’ve seen all
year: short-term stabilization dressed up as strategic progress,"
said Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Both sides are managing
volatility, calibrating just enough cooperation to avert crisis
while the deeper rivalry endures.”
The U.S. and China have each shown they believe they have levers to
pressure the other, and the past year has demonstrated that
tentative steps forward can be short-lived.
For Trump, that pressure comes from tariffs.
China had faced new tariffs this year totaling 30%, of which 20%
were tied to its role in fentanyl production. But the tariff rates
have been volatile. In April, he announced plans to jack the rate on
Chinese goods to 145%, only to abandon those plans as markets
recoiled.
Then, on Oct. 10, Trump threatened a 100% import tax because of
China's rare earth restrictions. That figure, including past
tariffs, would now be 47% “effective immediately,” Trump told
reporters on Thursday.
Xi has his own chokehold on the world economy because China is the
top producer and processor of the rare earth minerals needed to make
fighter jets, robots, electric vehicles and other high-tech
products.
China had tightened export restrictions on Oct. 9, repeating a cycle
in which each nation jockeys for an edge only to back down after
more trade talks.
What might also matter is what happens directly after their talks.
Trump plans to return to Washington, while Xi plans to stay on in
South Korea to meet with regional leaders during the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation summit, which officially begins on Friday.
“Xi sees an opportunity to position China as a reliable partner and
bolster bilateral and multilateral relations with countries
frustrated by the U.S. administration’s tariff policy,” said Jay
Truesdale, a former State Department official who is CEO of TD
International, a risk and intelligence advisory firm.
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Ken Moritsugu in Beijing and Seung Min Kim and Michelle Price in
Washington contributed to this report. Boak reported from Tokyo and
Megerian reported from Busan, South Korea.
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