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President Donald Trump has accused China of violating an agreement with the United States to mutually roll back tariffs and trade restrictions for critical minerals while issuing a new threat to get tougher with Beijing.
“China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday.
Trump said that he made a “fast deal” with Chinese officials in mid-May for both countries to halt triple-digit tariffs for 90 days. He said he did this to save China from a “devastating” situation, factory closings, and civil unrest caused by his tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese imports.
Trump did not specify how China had violated the agreement made in Geneva, Switzerland, or what action he would take against Beijing.
Asked later on Friday in the Oval Office about the China deal, Trump said: “I’m sure that I’ll speak to President Xi, and hopefully we’ll work that out.”
But a US official told Reuters that it appears China is moving slowly on promises to issue export licenses for rare earth minerals. The deal called for China to lift trade countermeasures that restrict its imports of the critical metals needed for US semiconductor, electronics, and defence production.
“The Chinese are slow-rolling their compliance, which is completely unacceptable, and it has to be addressed,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC, without specifying how that would happen.
On Friday, global auto executives began sounding the alarm on an impending shortage of rare-earth magnets from China, used in everything from windshield-wiper motors to anti-lock braking sensors, that could force the closure of car factories within weeks.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, said China has maintained communications on trade matters with US counterparts since the Geneva talks, but raised concerns about US export controls.
“Recently, China has repeatedly raised concerns with the US regarding its abuse of export control measures in the semiconductor sector and other related practices,” Liu said in a statement.
“China once again urges the US to immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China, and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva.”
The US has also ordered a growing list of companies to stop shipping goods to China without a license and revoked some existing export licenses, three people familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency.
Trade talks ‘stalled’
On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that trade talks with China were “a bit stalled” and that getting a deal over the finish line will likely require the direct involvement of Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The US-China temporary truce to dial back triple-digit tariffs for 90 days prompted a massive relief rally in global stocks, and along with other pauses on Trump’s import taxes, has lowered the effective US tariff rate to the mid-teens from around 25% in early April.
It was less than 3% when Trump took office in January.
The temporary truce between Washington and Beijing, however, had done nothing to address the underlying reasons for Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods, mainly longstanding US complaints about China’s state-dominated, export-driven economic model.
Major US stock indexes ended little changed on Friday after Trump complained about China’s compliance.
