Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S.-Chinese trade negotiations, a failed suspected terrorist attack on a British air base, and Spain’s worsening housing crisis.

China and the United States have agreed to slash tariffs on a slew of “nonsensitive” products collectively worth $60 billion, from Chinese toys to U.S. cosmetics. The cuts represent a step toward reducing the rival superpowers’ trade war after sweeping U.S. duties on Chinese goods reached a whopping 145 percent last year.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S.-Chinese trade negotiations, a failed suspected terrorist attack on a British air base, and Spain’s worsening housing crisis.

China and the United States have agreed to slash tariffs on a slew of “nonsensitive” products collectively worth $60 billion, from Chinese toys to U.S. cosmetics. The cuts represent a step toward reducing the rival superpowers’ trade war after sweeping U.S. duties on Chinese goods reached a whopping 145 percent last year.

According to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the tariff cuts will unlock “improved market access” for roughly 30 percent of U.S. exports to China, including agricultural goods such as corn, wheat, and dairy. Notably absent from that list, though, is soybeans. In 2025, China was the top market for U.S. soybean farmers, and soybeans were the agricultural sector’s No. 2 bulk export in value. But with Beijing punishing the U.S. soybean sector in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s trade war, a key Republican voting base has struggled to recover from the heavy economic losses.

U.S. and Chinese officials have at least three more months to come up with a solution on soybeans and other unresolved trade issues, with China’s Commerce Ministry confirming on Monday that the countries’ tariff truce will extend through Jan. 10.

Yet it is unclear whether the negotiators will have better luck clinching a deal than Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who met in the Oval Office on Thursday to discuss ways to improve the bilateral relationship.

Although both leaders praised the importance of a good partnership, the summit resulted in few substantial breakthroughs. Instead, dialogue appeared to get bogged down by disagreements over Taiwan, with Xi urging Trump to oppose the island’s........

© Foreign Policy