The trucks loaded with containers move to a port in Shanghai, China, Monday, June 9, 2025.
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White House officials provide new information on a step to a tariff agreement with China after President Trump announced an agreement without providing details.
During a White House event on Thursday, Trump announced: “We just signed with China yesterday, right? I just signed with China.” Since then, the White House officials have said that what was signed was not an agreement on the prices.
A White House official, speaking anonymously, told NPR: “Administration and China have agreed with an additional understanding of an executive to implement” an agreement that the two countries have concluded in Geneva earlier this year. The official, who was not authorized to comment on publicly, said later that the new agreement focused on the minerals of rare earths, a Chinese export which is key in a wide range of goods, technological devices and planes. It is an aspect of what countries discussed during pricing negotiations.
The new information comes after several chaotic months of back and forth price ads followed by subsequent adjustments.
Commerce secretary, Howard Lungick, confirmed Thursday evening on Bloomberg TV that China “would give us rare earths”. He added that thereafter, “we are going to bring down our countermeasures.”
In a statement, the Chinese trade ministry also recognized that “more details on the frame” had been created.
“China, in accordance with the law, will examine and approve the eligible export requests for controlled articles,” they wrote. “In turn, the United States will lift a series of restrictive measures that it had imposed on China.”
The prices on Chinese products have the potential to destabilize worldwide and have reached 145%at a time.
At a meeting in Geneva last month, US and Chinese officials announced that they had concluded a temporary agreement that would make us pass prices on Chinese products at 30%, with a deadline of August 12 to reach a more permanent agreement.
The high prices China and the United States have imposed the markets of the other rushed while American consumers faced higher prices on a wide range of products, such as car seats and clothing, while American farmers feared that Chinese consumers buy less from their now more expensive food exports.
All this occurs in a context of wider price uncertainty, after Trump announced on April 2 on the goods of almost all countries, some of these prices exceeding 40%. A few days later, he announced a 90 -day “break” on these prices, bringing them to 10%.
This “break” should end on July 9, which raises questions about what is happening after that. Trump said he would reach individual prices agreements in the longer term with countries during the 90-day period, but the only announced agreement was with the United Kingdom, signed last week at the G7 summit.
In his Bloomberg interview, Lutnick said the United States was about to conclude tariff agreements with 10 major business partners.
The White House now suggests that July 9 is a gentle deadline for these agreements. The Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, told Fox Business on Friday that several important individual tariff transactions will be concluded by the Labor Day.
“Secretary Lutnick said yesterday that he expects 10 additional agreements, therefore, if we can ink 10 or 12 of the 18 important, there is another important relationship, so I think we could have trade wrapped in labor festival,” he said.
