3 hours ago
2
The United States has reached an agreement with China to expedite rare earth shipments to the US, a White House official confirmed on Thursday.
The development comes amid ongoing efforts to de-escalate the trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.
The announcement follows an earlier statement from President Donald Trump, who indicated on Wednesday that a deal had been signed with China, though he did not provide specific details at the time.
This agreement addresses a critical aspect of the trade tensions, as China had previously suspended exports of a wide range of vital minerals and magnets.
This move, part of Beijing's retaliation against new US tariffs, significantly disrupted global supply chains, impacting industries from automotive and aerospace manufacturing to semiconductor production and military contractors worldwide.
During trade discussions held in Geneva in May, Beijing had committed to lifting non-tariff countermeasures imposed against the United States since April 2, although the specifics of how these measures would be reversed remained unclear until now.
"The administration and China agreed to an additional understanding for a framework to implement the Geneva agreement," a White House official said on Thursday.
The understanding is "about how we can implement expediting rare earths shipments to the US again", the official said.
A separate administration official said the US-China agreement took place earlier this week.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was quoted as saying by Bloomberg: "They're going to deliver rare earths to us" and once they do that "we'll take down our countermeasures."
On Friday, China's commerce ministry said the two countries recently confirmed details on the framework of implementing the Geneva trade talks consensus.
It said China will approve export applications of controlled items in accordance with the law. It did not mention rare earths.
While the agreement shows potential progress following months of trade uncertainty and disruption since Trump took office in January, it also underscores the long road ahead to a final, definitive trade deal between the two economic rivals.
China has been taking its dual-use restrictions on rare earths "very seriously" and has been vetting buyers to ensure that materials are not diverted to US military uses, according to an industry source. This has slowed down the licensing process.
The Geneva deal had faltered over China's curbs on critical minerals exports, prompting the Trump administration to respond with export controls of its own preventing shipments of semiconductor design software, aircraft and other goods to China.
In early June, Reuters reported China had granted temporary export licenses to rare-earth suppliers of the top three US automakers, according to two sources familiar with the matter, as supply chain disruptions began to surface from export curbs on those materials.
Later in the month, Trump said there was a deal with China in which Beijing would supply magnets and rare earth minerals while the US would allow Chinese students in its colleges and universities.
