US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg that Washington signed a new trade deal with China earlier this week, without disclosing specific details, the Associated Press reported, BTA reports.
Lutnick, as well as President Donald Trump, confirmed the agreement, but did not specify its content.
“We just signed with China“, Trump said late last night. Lutnick added that the deal was “signed and done” two days earlier.
The agreement follows initial talks in Geneva in early May that led to a 90-day suspension of new tariffs imposed by both sides. Subsequent talks in London ended with an announced agreement on a “common framework” to resolve trade differences between the two countries. Trump’s signing of the deal formalizes that preliminary understanding.
“The president likes to make these deals himself. He’s the one making the deals. We’re going to have deal after deal,” Lutnick said.
For his part, China has not announced a new trade agreement. However, earlier this week, Chinese authorities said they were speeding up the process of issuing licenses for the export of rare earth elements - strategic raw materials used in high-tech products such as electric vehicles.
China's Ministry of Commerce announced that it was easing restrictions on the review and approval of export applications, and that a "certain number of compatible applications" had already been approved.
Stephen Miran, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said he expected the Trump administration to extend the tariff break for countries that "negotiate in good faith" with the United States, Yahoo Finance reported.