US-China Call Temporary Truce in Trade War After Trump-Xi Meeting

At a historic summit in South Korea, President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on an initial trade deal aiming to ease ongoing tensions between the two economic giants. The U.S. committed to reducing tariffs on Chinese goods by 10%, while China agreed to delay export controls on rare earth minerals and increase purchases of American soybeans, offering some short-term relief to industries such as U.S. agriculture. Despite this, experts and market participants caution that the deal does not address deeper structural and systemic issues affecting both economies, including the impacts of artificial intelligence on the American labor market and the weaponization of tariffs as a tool of U.S. foreign policy. The agreement included cooperation on fentanyl control and was marked by positive rhetoric from both leaders, although financial markets responded with caution, reflecting uncertainty about the truce's durability. Chinese exporters welcome the tariff reductions but remain wary and continue diversifying supply chains outside China, anticipating that trade frictions may resurface. The long-term effectiveness of this truce remains uncertain, as the broader geopolitical and economic tensions underlying the US-China relationship persist.