United States and Chinese officials said on Tuesday they had agreed on a framework to put their trade truce back on track and remove Beijing’s export restrictions on rare earths while offering little sign of a durable resolution to longstanding trade differences.

At the end of two days of intense negotiations in London, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters the framework deal puts “meat on the bones” of an agreement reached last month in Geneva to ease bilateral retaliatory tariffs that had reached crushing triple-digit levels.

But the Geneva deal had faltered over China’s continued curbs on critical minerals exports, prompting the Trump administration to respond with export controls of its own preventing shipments of semiconductor design software, aircraft and other goods to China.

Lutnick said the agreement reached in London would remove some of the recent US export restrictions, but did not provide details after the talks concluded around midnight London time (4am PKT).

“We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,” Lutnick said.

“The idea is we’re going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They’re going to go back and speak to President Xi and make sure he approves it, and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework.”

Trump touted that an agreement was reached, saying China would supply “magnets, and any necessary rare earths” to the world’s biggest........

© Dawn Business