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  • 10 months ago
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday (Oct 30) he had agreed with President Xi Jinping to trim tariffs on China in exchange for Beijing cracking down on the illicit fentanyl trade, resuming US soybean purchases and keeping rare earths exports flowing.

Trump said tariffs on Chinese imports would be cut to 47% from 57% by halving the rate of tariffs related to trade in fentanyl precursor drugs to 10%.

Trump's face-to-face talks with Xi in Busan, their first since 2019, marked the finale of a whirlwind Asia trip on which he also touted trade breakthroughs with South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian nations.

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Transcript
00:00I thought it was an amazing meeting.
00:04He's a great leader.
00:06A leader of a very powerful, very strong country, China.
00:30A lot of decisions were made.
00:33There wasn't too much left out there.
00:36And we've come to conclusion on many very important points,
00:40and we'll be handing that to you in a little while,
00:42because there was a lot of different things,
00:45many of them very important.
00:47We're in agreement on so many elements.
00:53Large amounts, tremendous amounts of the soybeans
00:57and other farm products are going to be purchased immediately,
01:00starting immediately.
01:01If you notice, the presidency authorized yesterday
01:06for China to start, did you know that, right?
01:09China to start buying in very large quantities of soybeans
01:12and other things, which I appreciated.
01:15That was a very nice gesture.
01:17On fentanyl, we agreed that he was going to work very hard
01:22to stop the flow.
01:24You know, it's a very complex subject,
01:26because it's used for lots of different reasons,
01:30including anesthetics and things.
01:33But he's going to work very hard on it, precursors,
01:37and I think you're going to see some real action taken.
01:42I've agreed, as you know, I put a 20% tariff on China
01:46because of the fentanyl coming in, which is a big tariff.
01:50And based on his statements today, I reduced it by 10%,
01:54so it's 10% instead of 20% effective immediately.
01:59I believe he's going to work very hard to stop the death that's coming in.
02:06But again, it's complex because of what fentanyl is,
02:11what the precursors do.
02:13So I think you're going to see a big difference.
02:16How will your new tariff rate on China's goods be once you sign a deal?
02:20It's the same.
02:21Other than what we...
02:22Tariffs are made exactly the same.
02:2455%?
02:25It's about...
02:26No, it's...
02:27It was 57.
02:28Now it's 47.
02:29And how long...
02:30Because we reduced it by the fentanyl.
02:34Because I believe they are really taking strong action.
02:39We've already seen the action on fentanyl,
02:41and they're taking very strong action.
02:43So we reduced it to 10%.
02:45That's all.
02:46On fentanyl, they've agreed there are a variety of precursors.
02:49You may recall that actual fentanyl was scheduled by China
02:52in the present's first term successfully.
02:54There are certain precursors where they take whatever actions they need to control that.
02:58If they can control rare earths, we know they can control the precursors.
03:01And President Xi, I think, was very strong in saying he was going to enforce those laws internally.
03:05And, of course, we'll watch that, and we'll work with them.
03:07He's going to be very strong in enforcing the fentanyl,
03:09everything having to do with fentanyl and regulations internally,
03:13including taking very strong measures against those that don't obey.
03:18And a variety of other tariffs still remain.
03:20Section 301 tariffs from the original.
03:22A variety of Section 232 tariffs.
03:24Some of these tariffs are, as the President mentioned,
03:26around 40%.
03:28For some individual products, it may go up to 100%.
03:30But as a general matter, it's about 45%, 47%.
03:33A lot of things we brought to finalization.
03:35A lot of finalization.
03:37I thought it was a great meeting.
03:39I think it was a very friendly meeting.
03:41It was a good meeting for two very large, powerful countries.
03:45And that's the way we should get along with it.
03:48But overall, I guess, on the scale of from 0 to 10, with 10 being the best,
03:53I would say the meeting was at 12.
03:56I think it was at 12.
03:58I think very importantly, you know, just the whole relationship is very important.
04:04Thank you all.
04:05It was a great success.
04:06It was a great honor.
04:07I mean, he's a tremendous leader of a very powerful country.
04:10And I give great respect to him.
04:12And we appreciate the fact that he came for this meeting.
04:15Thank you very much.
04:16Thank you, sir.
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