November 3, 2025 | 11:23 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - United States President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping reached several agreements during their meeting in South Korea last week. They met in Busan, South Korea, on Thursday, October 30, 2025. This was their first face-to-face meeting since 2019. Trump described the meeting as the pinnacle of his five-day tour in Asia.
Al Jazeera and Reuters reported that the two superpower leaders have agreed to a trade truce. Washington will ease tariffs, and Beijing will resume importing US soybeans. Another agreement is to postpone the implementation of export restrictions on some rare earth metals and to intensify efforts to curb the illicit fentanyl trade.
"I thought it was an amazing meeting," said Trump to reporters.
Here are some key points from Xi Jinping and Donald Trump's meeting:
Brief Meeting
Some observers were surprised by the brief duration of the discussion, which lasted only about one hour and 40 minutes. Shan Guo, a partner at the Shanghai-based consultancy Hutong Research, said the meeting was likely shorter than expected because both sides limited the discussion to agreed-upon topics.
Although no official schedule was released, Trump had previously hinted that the discussion could last up to four hours. Despite its brevity, Trump said the meeting results were fantastic, rating it 12 out of 10.
On the other hand, the two countries have agreed to a "truce" in the trade war that has been raging for the past year.
Both Countries' Trade Agreement
China and the U.S. have agreed to collaborate on trade issues for one year. The agreement will be reviewed after that period.
China has agreed to postpone the export restrictions on the five rare earth metals it announced this month. However, the restrictions on the other seven rare earth metals announced in April will remain in place. These metals are used to produce many essential products, ranging from smartphones to jet aircraft.
On the other hand, Trump said China will work very hard to halt the flow of fentanyl to the U.S. "I believe they are really taking strong action," Trump said.
As a result of Beijing's commitment to fentanyl, Washington stated it would halve the 20 percent tariff on fentanyl-related goods. Overall, this will reduce China's tariffs from 57 percent to 47 percent. The average tariff China imposes on U.S. goods is 32 percent.
China will also continue to buy soybeans from the U.S. Furthermore, China will suspend retaliatory action related to Washington's Section 301 investigation for one year. The Section 301 investigation refers to the U.S. investigation based on the Trade Act of 1974, which allows Washington to impose tariffs or other measures in response to what it views as unfair trade practices by China, such as state subsidies, forced technology transfer, and intellectual property rights violations.
China's Ministry of Commerce also said the U.S. had agreed to suspend plans to expand export controls on technology to Chinese subsidiaries.
Trump and Xi Jinping to Visit Each Other
Trump will visit China in April 2026. Xi Jinping is also expected to visit the U.S. shortly after Trump's arrival. According to Trump, the U.S. and China will agree to work together to stop the war in Ukraine.
Although they met, according to Einar Tangen, a senior researcher at the Taihe Institute in Beijing, the agreement between Trump and Xi Jinping is not particularly significant. Trump's decision to reduce China's tariffs from 57 percent to 47 percent is meaningless. "Any economist will tell you, tariffs 30 percent or above mean that you effectively end trade," Tangen said, as reported by Al Jazeera.
"It’s kind of an indication to me that there wasn’t as much progress [in these talks] as Donald Trump is trying to hint at," he added.
Tangen said that Beijing hopes the Trump administration will reduce its tariffs to 20 or 25 percent — or, at most, 30 percent — to bring them in line with those of other countries.
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