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Mastering The Art of the Deal is apparently not easy.
There are supposedly 69 days left to ink a permanent trade agreement with China, but progress has shown signs of stalling in recent days. Here’s what we know:
President Trump in the wee hours of the morning took to social media to comment on the status of trade talks with China.
Spoiler: There doesn’t seem to be much advancement.
“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social just after 2 a.m. ET Wednesday.
Last month’s US-China detente placed a mutual temporary (90-day) rollback on tariffs. The US lowered tariffs on China from 145% to 30%, and China decreased levies on US goods from 125% to 10%.
The deal also apparently included a rollback in the strict mineral export restrictions China implemented in retaliation to “Liberation Day,” according to comments from US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
Last week, when Trump accused China (again via a Truth Social post) of “violating its agreement,” he was talking about China “slow rolling” its side of the deal, Greer said. Greer mentioned restrictions on rare-earth exports specifically.
China is dragging its feet on rolling back the mineral export restrictions, according to a Wall Street Journal report. That’s because the US Commerce Department on May 12 warned that using Huawei Technologies’ Ascend AI chips “anywhere in the world” violated export controls.
The US did this as part of a continued effort to limit technological advancements in China, so it makes sense that the country would counter with retaliatory measures of its own.
Back to the rare earths. Why does the export restriction matter? China mines 60% of the global supply and manufacturers 90% of the global supply of rare earth magnets. Rare earth elements are essential for technology; they are in cell phones, cars, lights, batteries, you name it.
Solvent extraction (the difficult process of separating rare earth minerals from one another) comes with bad impacts on the environment: high levels of toxic waste, water pollution, etc. The process was actually created in the US in the 1950s, but it’s expensive and unpopular in the States.
All this to say: US-China tensions may be manifesting themselves as export controls and tariffs, but they’re just tools in a broader economic battle.
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