WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the United States will get magnets and rare earth minerals from China under a new trade framework and that tariffs on Chinese goods will total 55%.
In return, Trump said, the U.S. will provide China “what was agreed to,” including allowing Chinese students to attend American colleges and universities. The Republican president had recently begun to clamp down on the presence of Chinese nationals on U.S. college campuses.
What Trump described as a “deal” actually is a framework to help the U.S. and China eventually negotiate a sought-after trade agreement, which Trump intends to do with numerous countries but so far has been unable to execute on as quickly as he promised the public he’d be able to.
So far, Trump only has announced the terms of a deal with the United Kingdom.
A White House official, who was not authorized to discuss the terms publicly and insisted on anonymity to describe them, said the 55% was not an increase on the previous 30% tariff on China because Trump was including other pre-existing import taxes.
“OUR DEAL WITH CHINA IS DONE, SUBJECT TO FINAL APPROVAL WITH PRESIDENT XI AND ME.,” Trump wrote Wednesday on his social media site.
He said full magnets and any necessary rare earths will be supplied up front by China.
“WE ARE GETTING A TOTAL OF 55% TARIFFS, CHINA IS GETTING 10%. RELATIONSHIP IS EXCELLENT!” Trump wrote.
A Chinese statement on the talks did not reveal any details or concrete steps.
In a follow-up social media post, Trump said he and Xi “are going to work closely together to open up China to American Trade. This would be a great WIN for both countries!!!”
Senior U.S. and Chinese negotiators announced late Tuesday in London that they had agreed on a framework to get their trade negotiations back on track after a series of disputes that threatened to derail them.
The announcement came at the end of two days of talks in the British capital that wrapped up late Tuesday.
