The threat of the US imposing an additional 100% tariff rate on imports from China appears to have been averted following President Donald Trump’s recent trip to Asia.
The apparent trade truce between the two countries, which comes after face-to-face discussions between Trump and President Xi Jinping in South Korea on 30 October, is expected to see China purchase more US soybeans and suspend the implementation of widespread export controls on critical minerals and rare earth elements.
According to a fact sheet published by the White House on 1 November, China’s export controls against materials such as antimony, gallium, germanium and graphite – which are vital to the manufacturing processes of products such as semiconductors and batteries – are to be de-facto removed through the use of a general licence, which will be issued as a result of the agreement.
China is responsible for the vast majority of these materials’ production and refinement, so any loosening of export controls will have an impact on global supply chains and be welcomed by high-tech manufacturing companies.
China will also, according to the White House statement, implement new processes aimed at halting the flow of fentanyl and specific designated chemicals out of China to North America, and control the export of certain chemicals to the rest of the world. Retaliatory tariff and non-tariff actions by China since March will be removed, too.
The US will in turn lower tariffs on Chinese imports related to fentanyl by 10 percentage points from 10 November 2025 and continue with its suspension of the escalated reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports until 10 November 2026.
Despite this shift, there are still issues between the two countries that are yet to be resolved, including the sale of Chinese social media platform TikTok’s US operations.
The US has also initiated a Section 301 investigation into barriers to commerce, which is focused on China’s implementation of the 2020 economic and trade agreement – the so-called Phase One Agreement – between the two countries.
The investigation was launched on 24 October, with a public hearing slated for 16 December. Under normal circumstances, these investigations last between 12 and 18 months.
A press statement from US Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, says the investigation’s initiation “underscores the Trump Administration’s resolve to hold China to its Phase One Agreement commitments”.