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Tariff cut, rare earth deal: Trump reveals the deals made during meeting with Xi
Trump and Xi Jinping met in South Korea's Busan on Thursday on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju.
United States President Donald Trump called his one hour forty minutes-long meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping a “great success” and slashed tariffs on Chinese imports in a major breakthrough in the trade ties between the world's two biggest economies.
Both the leaders met in South Korea's Busan on Thursday on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju.
Also read: Trump cuts fentanyl tariffs on China to 10% after 'amazing meeting' with Xi
Here are the key takeaways from the Trump-Xi meeting-
US slashes fentanyl tariffs on China- In a major takeaway from the meeting, Trump agreed to cut fentanyl tariffs on China from 20 per cent to 10 per cent effective immediately. Trump said that he agreed to do so because Xi Jinping will work "very hard to stop the flow" of fentanyl. “I believe they are really taking strong action,” the US President said.
Overall tariff cuts- With China's promise to take care of the fentanyl situation, Trump said he has decided to cut overall tariffs on Chinese goods imported from the US from 57 per cent to 47 per cent.
Trump announces China visit- After the meeting, the US President told reporters on Air Force One that he will be visiting China in April and that Xi Jinping will come to the US after that. "I'll be going to China in April and he'll be coming here sometime after that, whether it's in Florida, Palm Beach or Washington, DC," he said.
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No discussion on Taiwan- Both the leaders did not discuss the sensitive issue of Taiwan during their meeting, said Trump. Taiwan "never came up. That was not discussed actually," he said.
Rare earth deal- Both the parties reached a breakthrough on rare earth deal, which was a major point of contention between them. Trump said that they reached a one-year extendable agreement on China's supply of crucial rare earths. “There’s no roadblock at all on rare earths…That will hopefully disappear from our vocabulary for a little while,” Trump said.
Discussions on Ukraine- Both the leaders discussed the situation in Ukraine during their meeting. Trump said that both the leaders are going to work together to resolve the Ukraine issue. “Ukraine came up very strongly. We talked about it for a long time, and we're both going to work together to see if we can get something,” Trump said, reported news agency AFP. Xi Jinping is "going to help us, and we're going to work together On Ukraine"," he added.
