US-China trade boost: US hopes to finalise China rare earths deal by Thanksgiving; Beijing to suspend export curbs

The United States is hoping to finalise its rare earths agreement with China by Thanksgiving, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday, signalling momentum in the negotiations launched after Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met in South Korea last month, AFP reported.The tentative deal reached in late October includes a one-year suspension of Chinese export restrictions on critical minerals — a sector where Beijing holds overwhelming dominance in mining and processing, vital for industries ranging from autos and electronics to defence.“We haven't even finished the agreement, which we hope to have done by Thanksgiving,” Bessent said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures. He added, “I am confident… that China will honor their agreements,” referring to commitments made during the Trump–Xi meeting.However, Bessent cautioned that Washington has “lots of levers” if Beijing fails to keep its word.Under the emerging arrangement, rare earths “will flow freely as they did before April 4,” when China imposed new export licence requirements in retaliation for Trump’s sweeping tariffs.As part of the broader understanding reached by both leaders, the United States will roll back some tariffs on Chinese goods, and China will resume large-scale purchases of American soybeans — at least 12 million metric tons this year and 25 million metric tons in 2026.China had halted soybean imports earlier in response to Trump’s tariff actions. “They made pawns out of our great soybean farmers,” Bessent said, adding, “But we believe we have remedied that.”