Switch the White House newsletter on free of charge
Your guide to what Trump’s second term for Washington, business and world means
A top officer of the White House said that US President Donald Trump would reduce the restrictions when selling chips to China if Beijing agreed to accelerate the export of rare earths because the two countries started with high trade talks in London.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council of the White House, said that he expected the US negotiators in the USA and the Chinese negotiators to achieve a deal that would lead to China accelerating rare earths and magnetic complaints.
Washington had accused Beijing, last month as part of the armistice in the weapons US China Trading War.
Finance Minister Scott Bessent has the US team in the talks opened in London on Monday. The sales representative Jamieson Greer and the Minister of Commerce Howard Lutnick are also part of the delegation in Washington. The Chinese delegation is run by He Lifeng, a vice-premier.
“I assume that it will be a short meeting with a big, strong handshake,” Hassett told CNBC Television on Monday after the trade talks started. “Our expectation is … Immediately after the handshake, all export controls from the USA are relaxed and the rare earths are released in volume.”
His comments were the first suggestion that Trump was willing to put export controls on the negotiating table.
It would mark a significant departure from the administration of Joe Biden, introducing comprehensive export controls that make China more difficult, advanced US chip technology that could help its military.
Hassett did not indicate which export controls would be relieved, but suggested that the administration would not loosen any restrictions to prevent the US chip maker nvidia from selling high-end chips to groups in China.
The Financial Times reported last month that the Trump administration was planning to have a number of Chinese chip manufacturers on one Trade department export the black listBut that some officers wanted to hold back because they believed that the move after the “ceasefire” would have a negative impact on US China trade talks.
In Geneva, the two sides agreed to reduce the tariffs that they get together for 90 days, after considering concerns about their effects on bilateral trade and global supply chains.
The FT reported on Monday that Chinese exports to the USA exports fallen in May With most since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020.
Hassett said Beijing was “slowly rolling” exports for rare earths, which had become a “very important sticking point” after the deal in Geneva. He said the problem was part of the more than hourly telephone call that Trump held on Friday with China’s President Xi Jinping.
China repeatedly beat the US export controls. The willingness to use rare earth to put pressure on the United States in recent months is the first time that it has seriously used it against American companies.
