Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Sunday that after multiple rounds of preliminary talks with Chinese officials, Washington and Beijing have agreed to a framework to avoid 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods after Beijing’s announcement to impose stringent export controls on rare earth elements (REE) earlier this month.
It is important to note that Sec. Bessent is referring to a “framework,” not a deal. Neither the U.S. nor China has agreed to anything yet. Sec. Bessent expects that Beijing will delay its critical minerals licensing regime by a year and will resume soybean purchases from American farmers. Specific details of the framework are still unknown.
ABC News’ Martha Raddatz: “What kind of concessions were made [to China], especially in these rare earth minerals?”
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) October 26, 2025
Treasury Secretary Bessent: “I’m not sure what you meant. [China] had threatened to put a global export licensing regime, and I believe they’re going to delay… pic.twitter.com/TvavDOA9SC
.@SecScottBessent on talks with China: "I think we have addressed the farmers' concerns — and I'm not going to get ahead of the President, but I believe when the announcement of the deal with China is made public, that our soybean farmers will feel very good." pic.twitter.com/8n6Tj4U2qk
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 26, 2025
Many are confused about President Trump’s approach to China before his meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea. His underlying strategy is as follows: Buy time to decouple the U.S.’s REE supply chain from China, all while squeezing concessions from Beijing and rallying the world on our side.
China—with its worsening economy—knows that it overplayed its hand and that it has been exposed, hence why its leadership is forced to come to the negotiating table.
RELATED: Trump Visit to Japan: Great Moments With New PM, Incredible Gift, and Signing of Important Deal
Trump Has Humorous Moment With Australian Leader, Walks Away With Great Deal
To be clear, as I have mentioned in the past, President Trump does not expect Xi to keep his word on anything. This has become evident to the president over the years, as well as since earlier this year when Beijing flagrantly violated the terms of the Geneva agreement.
China’s unwillingness to comply with agreements is so obvious to the Trump administration that the U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, opened an investigation into China’s compliance—noncompliance, rather—with the Phase One Agreement, which the Biden administration failed to hold China accountable for. In that phase, China was supposed to purchase certain American goods in 2020 and 2021 by at least $200 billion over 2017 levels, totaling $502.4 billion.
This investigation could pave the way for additional tariffs on Chinese goods, though it remains uncertain whether—or when—any such action will follow the hearing, which is scheduled for December. This move aims to protect American agriculture and workers.
President Trump appears to be optimistic that both sides will reach a deal. The stock market reacted favorably to this announcement, with the Dow Jones climbing 337 points on Monday.
Deal or no deal, the likely outcome of this meeting will be a de-escalation in the current trade war. President Trump plans to raise several issues other than rare earths with Xi, including fentanyl (China could have stopped this long ago on its own; it is highly lucrative for the Chinese Communist Party and part of its unrestricted warfare), Jimmy Lai, Ukraine, and Taiwan. The president could very well push Xi to make concessions.
The truce that emerges will be fragile and temporary. A trade truce now does not mean Beijing is safe from additional U.S. tariffs or sanctions down the road. The administration is surely not going back to the pre-January tariff rate either.
In fact, the Trump administration continues to hold China accountable. Whereas Biden removed previously designated Chinese military companies from the blacklist, the Trump administration’s Commerce Department has issued a new rule that could cause the Chinese entities blacklist to increase from about 1,300 entities to more than 20,000 entities.
The move to de-escalate the trade war is purely strategic. Even though the U.S. has the upper hand in the trade war, it is an undeniable fact that China has a monopoly on refining and processing rare earths—an arrangement that the administration clearly recognizes poses a national security threat. These minerals are needed to produce consumer electronics and military weapons, including our F-35s. If China chose to cut off all rare earths, global supply chains, including the U.S.’s defense sector, would face major disruptions.
As the administration buys time and attempts to squeeze concessions from China, Washington is not slowing down in its efforts to break China’s stranglehold on the REE supply chain. Decoupling will take time and effort on our end, but with carefully allocated resources and a sense of urgency, this can be accomplished in a relatively short span of time.
The Department of War (DOW) has invested in rare earth materials company MP Material, with the DOW’s Office of Strategic Capital issuing a $150 million loan to enhance the company’s rare earth separation capabilities. This month, the Department of Energy announced an investment to accelerate domestic lithium production.
Since China’s rare earths export controls announcement, the administration has ramped up its cooperation with international partners and key allies to develop resilient critical minerals supply chains beyond China, known as friend-shoring.
The U.S. secured a critical minerals deal with Australia—a top rare earths producer and a country that has been working to expand its processing capacity.
More recently, at the ASEAN summit, President Trump signed historic memoranda of understanding with Malaysia and Thailand concerning critical mineral exploration, extraction, refining/processing, and recycling.
Add Japan to the list, with a comprehensive deal that covers everything from mining and processing to additional third-party agreements, licensing, and stockpiling.
.@POTUS and Prime Minister @takaichi_sanae sign agreements on strategic investments and critical minerals — ushering in a new Golden Age for the U.S.-Japan alliance 🇺🇸🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/ohEI9kExtt
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 28, 2025
The Trump administration is navigating a complex geopolitical environment when it comes to decoupling our critical minerals supply chain while rallying the world to work with us.
Though the administration already understands this, I can only reiterate that China cannot be trusted. History shows that Beijing is set to violate any vague promises that it makes, in which case, there will have to be accountability.
As we work toward the goal of cutting our dependence on China while isolating the communist country, Washington must take similar action with respect to the pharmaceutical sector—an area just as vital as critical minerals that has received far less public attention.
It is essential that Washington use this moment—a fragile and likely temporary truce with Beijing—to act swiftly and decisively, at Operation Warp Speed speed. That seems to be the plan. The administration is playing 4D chess, as cliché as it may sound.
