Trump, Xi Announce One‑Year Trade Truce

President Trump arrived in South Korea, signed a U.S.–South Korea trade package and advanced talks on roughly $350 billion in U.S. investments before meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Busan. In Busan the leaders met and announced a tentative, one‑year truce that rolls back several recent trade measures and will be renegotiated annually rather than established as a long‑term pact. Washington said it would cut certain fentanyl‑related tariffs (Trump said from 20% to 10%), lowering effective duties on many Chinese imports, while China agreed to pause strict rare‑earth export curbs for a year and to resume large purchases of U.S. agricultural products such as soybeans; Beijing also pledged steps to curb fentanyl precursor exports and the two agreed reciprocal visits. They did not resolve deeper disputes such as Section 301/232 tariffs or Taiwan, and left enforcement, verification and broader strategic decoupling issues unresolved. Markets reacted modestly, analysts warned the deal likely buys time rather than settles the rivalry, and Trump hailed the meeting even as concerns persisted about the pact’s short duration and verification.