China and the United States have reached a consensus on anti-drug cooperation and expanded trade in agricultural goods, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced today, after the meeting between the Presidents of the two countries.
A spokesperson for the Ministry indicated that the agreement also includes the “management of individual cases involving certain companies”, without specifying which ones, can be read in a statement published on the institution’s portal.
Today’s meeting, in Busan, South Korea, was the first between Chinese Presidents Xi Jinping and North American President Donald Trump since 2019 and also since Trump’s return to the White House.
The summit took place after negotiators from the two countries reached, last weekend, a “preliminary agreement” to temporarily suspend some of the trade restrictions applied in recent months.
According to the same spokesperson, trade negotiations between the world’s two largest economies “obtained positive results”, demonstrating that “both parties can find solutions to problems through dialogue and cooperation”.
Fentanyl and agricultural trade have been two of the points of contention in Trump’s current term. Regarding the first, the North American President confirmed that he will reduce the tariffs applied to China from 20% to 10% in retaliation for the country’s role in the global synthetic opioid chain, which will reduce the total average tariff from 57% to 47%.
Trump assured that Xi Jinping has committed to strengthening controls on fentanyl, which, according to Washington, is produced by Mexican cartels from chemical precursors originating in China.
Regarding agricultural trade, Trump stated that an agreement had been reached for the immediate resumption of Chinese purchases of North American soybeans, suspended since May in the context of the trade war driven by the Republican.
“Large, huge quantities of soybeans will be purchased immediately. President Xi authorized this yesterday [quarta-feira]and I thank you very much,” declared Trump.
The Bloomberg agency had reported that China acquired at least two shipments of soybeans from the United States, the first purchase of the current harvest, in a gesture interpreted as a sign of detente before the summit.
The United States is, along with countries like Brazil and Argentina, one of the world’s main soybean producers.