Trump Says Fixing Rare Earth Export Issue; China Has Different Take
President Donald Trump got the phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping he'd been seeking, and Trump wrote on social media that "there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products."
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Cabinet members have said that China promised to end restrictions on rare earth magnets, which are used in automobiles, but is slow-rolling the change.
Trump said that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would travel shortly to talk trade with Chinese negotiators.
Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency described the call by saying that Xi said "it is particularly important to steer clear of the various disturbances and disruptions" to right the U.S.-China relationship.
China has complained about announcements that the U.S. would aggressively revoke visas of Chinese students, and would decline more visa applications from Chinese students in the future; it also has said the U.S. is weaponizing export controls, which were recently expanded.
Trump told reporters at the White House after his post that he and Xi "were straightening out some of the points" of the trade deal they made in Geneva, that resulted in the U.S. dropping emergency tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, and the Chinese dropping tariffs from 125% to 10%.
"I would say we have a deal, and we're going to just make sure that everybody understands what the deal is," he said. He didn't explicitly say the visa scrutiny would be reversed, but said, "Chinese students are coming, no problem, no problem, and it's our honor to have them, frankly."
The Xinhua story didn't say that China will change its administration of rare earth magnet export controls. It said that Xi said China has been "earnestly executing the agreement. The U.S. side should acknowledge the progress already made, and remove the negative measures taken against China."