Lutnick: Talks with China are "going well"
Howard Lutnick states discussions in London are expected to go on throughout Tuesday, reports The Financial Times. "The talks are going well, we’re spending lots of time together," Lutnick told reporters.
"We’ve been [talking] all day yesterday and we expect to go all day today. The talks are going well, we’re spending lots of time together," told reporter Howard Lutnick. The delegations arrived at Lancaster Building just after 10:30 AM local time.
"The meeting marked the first face-to-face talks between He and Bessent since a 90-day truce brokered on May 12 in Geneva, when they agreed to slash their nations’ respective tariffs on the other by 115 percentage points," highlights The Financial Times.
"Having agreed to step back from a full-blown trade embargo at a first round of talks in Geneva in May, the two sides are now seeking agreement after they accused each other of trying to throttle supply chains with a raft of export controls," reports Reuters.
Since then, the truce has been tested by Chinese foot-dragging over approvals of rare-earth shipments. They are essential to the defence, car and tech industries, in an activity that has affected manufacturing supply chains in Europe and the US, as The Financial Times notes.
China-US trade war
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett stated on Monday that the United States might consider removing newly implemented export restrictions on products like semiconductors if China accelerates the supply of rare earth elements and magnets vital to the U.S. economy.
The second phase of U.S.-China negotiations—triggered by an unusual phone conversation between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week—arrives at a pivotal moment for both nations' economies. According to customs figures released Monday, Chinese exports to the United States fell by 34.5% in May, marking the steepest decline since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as notes Reuters.
