Trump says US has signed a deal with China on trade, without giving details

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK AP The U S and China have signed an agreement on exchange President Donald Trump reported adding he expects to soon have a deal with India Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick described Bloomberg TV that the deal was signed earlier this week Neither Lutnick nor Trump provided any details about the agreement We just signed with China the other day Trump mentioned late Thursday Lutnick noted the deal was signed and sealed two days earlier It was unclear if the latest agreement was different from the one Trump disclosed two weeks earlier that he stated would make it easier for American industries to obtain much-needed needed magnets and rare earth minerals That pact cleared the way for the deal talks to continue while the U S agreed to stop trying to revoke visas of Chinese nationals on U S college campuses China s Commerce Ministry commented Friday that the two sides had further approved the details of the framework But its declaration did not explicitly mention U S access to rare earths minerals used in high-tech applications that have been at the center of the negotiations China will approve the export applications of controlled items that meet the conditions in accordance with the law The United States will cancel a series of restrictive measures taken against China accordingly It is hoped that the United States and China will meet each other halfway it announced The agreement follows initial talks in Geneva in early May that led both sides to postpone massive tariff hikes that were threatening to freeze much agreement between the two countries Later talks in London set a framework for negotiations and the deal mentioned by Trump appeared to formalize that agreement The president likes to close these deals himself He s the dealmaker We re going to have deal after deal Lutnick announced China has not reported any new agreements but it communicated earlier this week that it was speeding up approvals of exports of rare earths materials used in high-tech products such as electric vehicles Beijing s limits on exports of rare earths have been a key point of contention The Chinese Commerce Ministry declared Thursday that Beijing was accelerating review of export license applications for rare earths and had approved a certain number of compliant applications Export controls of the minerals apparently eclipsed tariffs in the latest round of pact negotiations between Beijing and Washington after China imposed permitting requirements on seven rare earth elements in April threatening to disrupt production of cars robots wind turbines and other high-tech products in the U S and around the world Related Articles Trump bill s Medicaid provision that s now in limbo could cost Colorado billion Supreme Court has cases to decide including birthright citizenship States can cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood the Supreme Court rules Key Medicaid provision in Trump s bill is located to violate Senate rules The GOP is scrambling Federal judge orders US Labor Department to keep Job Corps running during lawsuit China also has taken strategies not long ago on the fentanyl issue announcing last week that it would designate two more substances as precursor chemicals for fentanyl making them subject to production conveyance and export regulations Trump has demanded that Beijing do more to stop the flow of such precursor ingredients to Mexican drug cartels which use them to make fentanyl for sale in the U S He imposed tariffs on Chinese imports over the fentanyl issue the biggest part of current across-the-board taxes on Chinese goods The agreement struck in May in Geneva called for both sides to scale back punitive tariff hikes imposed as Trump escalated his contract war and sharply raised import duties Certain higher tariffs such as those imposed by Washington related to the deal in fentanyl and duties on aluminum and steel remain in place The rapidly shifting policies are taking a toll on both of the world s two largest economies The U S commercial sector contracted at a annual pace from January through March partly because imports surged as companies and households rushed to buy foreign goods before Trump could impose tariffs on them In China factory profits sank more than from a year earlier in May with automakers suffering a large share of that drop They fell more than year-on-year in January-May Trump and other U S administrators have indicated they expect to reach agreement deals with a large number of other countries including India We re going to have deal after deal after deal Lutnick announced