China affirms trade deal with US, says it always keeps its word
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The deal was reached after a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
BEIJING – China on June 12 affirmed a trade deal announced by US President Donald Trump, saying both sides needed to abide by the consensus and adding that China always kept its word.
The deal, reached after Mr Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone last week
“China has always kept its word and delivered results,” Mr Lin Jian, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said at a regular news conference. “Now that a consensus has been reached, both sides should abide by it.”
The Trump-Xi telephone call broke a stand-off that had flared just weeks after a preliminary deal was reached in Geneva.
The call was quickly followed by more talks in London that Washington said had put “meat on the bones” of the Geneva agreement to ease bilateral retaliatory tariffs.
The Geneva deal had faltered over China’s continued curbs on minerals exports, prompting the Trump administration to respond with export controls preventing shipments of semiconductor design software
Mr Trump on June 11 said he was very happy with the trade deal. “Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,” Mr Trump said on Truth Social.
“Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, upfront, by China. Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!). We are getting a total of 55 per cent tariffs, China is getting 10 per cent.”
Still, specifics of the latest deal and details on how it will be implemented remain unclear.
A White House official said the 55 per cent represents the sum of a baseline 10 per cent “reciprocal” tariff
