President Trump and President Xi met in Busan, South Korea last Thursday, marking the first in-person meeting of the two leaders since Trump took office in January for his second term, where they supposedly crafted a one-year agreement on trade relations.
- Trump said on Thursday that the 20% tariffs on China related to fentanyl were being reduced to 10%, bringing the total effective tax rate on Chinese imports from 57% to 47%.
- Beijing said it would delay imposing dramatic restrictions on rare earth minerals, which are key materials for the production of computer chips used in smartphones, AI datacenters, and defense technology.
- Xi also authorized China to begin the purchase of Soybeans, Sorghum, and other farm products to return purchases to annual levels recorded prior to recent trade tensions.
- Trump said he believes the one-year deal will be “routinely” extended.
What about the TikTok deal?
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Thursday that China had “finalized” its approval in recent days, but that, “I would expect that would go forward in the coming weeks and months, and we'll finally see a resolution to that.”
I mean, you can keep using the words “final,” “finalized,” and “finally” as many times as you want, but I still don't see a closed deal.
China, of course, has offered no statements on the matter, other than to say that the two countries planned “to properly resolve issues” related to TikTok.
The news surrounding this U.S.-China TikTok deal is beginning to feel like the Photoshop file structure of a graphic designer saving their work as “tiktok-deal-final-final5.psd”
As I've said since the beginning, I'll believe it when I see it. For now though, no updates as of Thursday on the “final finalized” TikTok deal. And that's final!