China and U.S. agree on framework to implement Geneva trade consensus

The U.S. and China have reached an agreement on trade, representatives from both sides said after a second day of high-level talks in London.

“We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters.

That echoed comments to reporters from Li Chenggang, China’s international trade representative and a vice minister at China’s Commerce Ministry.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone late last week, stabilizing what had become a fraught relationship with both countries accusing each other of violating the Geneva trade agreement. At a meeting in Switzerland in mid-May, the world’s two largest economies had agreed to a 90-day suspension of reciprocal tariffs added in April, and a rollback of certain other measures.

Lutnick said he and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will head back to Washington to “make sure President Trump approves” the framework. If Xi also approves it, then “we will implement the framework,” Lutnick said.

Chinese restrictions on rare earth exports to the U.S. are a “fundamental part” of the latest agreement and the U.S. expects the issue “will be resolved in this framework implementation,” Lutnick said.

He indicated that U.S. restrictions on sales of advanced tech to China in recent weeks would be rolled back as Beijing approves rare earths exports.

While Chinese state media had been quick to announce Xi’s call with Trump last week, Beijing’s official mouthpieces were conspicuously silent more than one hour after Lutnick’s comments, except for a lower-profile mention citing Vice Commerce Minister Li as saying that the talks helped build bilateral trust.

On Tuesday local time in London, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters he was headed back to the U.S. in order to testify before Congress.

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, the lead negotiator on trade talks with the U.S., and Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao also participated in this week’s discussions.