Both sides say senior U.S. negotiators have agreed to a framework to get their trade talks back on track, a series of disputes threatening to derail.
The news ended Tuesday night in the British capital.
The meeting seemed to focus on finding ways to solve problems with minerals and technology exports that rocked a fragile armistice in trade in Geneva last month. It is unclear whether any progress has been made on the more fundamental disagreement over China’s huge trade surplus with the United States.
“First of all, we have to encounter negativity, and now we can keep moving forward,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters after the meeting.
Asian stocks rose on Wednesday after the agreement was announced.
Last week, a phone call between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping was after a conversation, trying to calm the waters.
The official news bureau said that Vice Minister of Commerce Li Chenggang said that in principle the two sides agreed to implement a consensus framework on the phone and reached a consensus in talks with Geneva.
Further details, including any potential next round of negotiation plans, cannot be provided immediately.
Chinese Ministers of Commerce Li and Wang Wenao are part of a delegation led by Vice Premier He Lifeng. They met with Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at a 200-year-old mansion near Buckingham Palace.
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Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator, said the dispute wasted 90 days of 30 days and that their dispute must be resolved.
They agreed in Geneva that most of the more than 100% tariffs they imposed on each other on each other for 90 days in an escalating trade war, raising concerns about the recession. The World Bank cut forecasts for U.S. and this year’s global economic growth on Tuesday, citing an increase in trade barriers.
“The United States and China have lost valuable time in resuming the Geneva agreement,” said Cutler, now vice president of the Asian Institute for Social Policy. “Now, there are only 60 days to address concerns, including unfair trade practices, excess capacity, transfers and fentanyl.”
Since the talks in Geneva, the United States and China have been able to provide visas to advanced semiconductors of artificial intelligence, Chinese students at U.S. universities, and angry words of rare earth minerals that are crucial to automakers and other industries.
China is the world's largest producer of rare earths, which shows it may speed up export licenses for elements. Beijing, in turn, hopes the United States will lift restrictions on China's technology to make advanced semiconductors.
Lutnick said that solving the rare earths is a fundamental part of the agreed framework and that the United States will cancel its measures. He did not specify what measures.
“When they approve the license, you should expect our export implementation to go down too,” he said.
Cutler said the U.S. negotiations on its export control measures would be unprecedented, which she sees as a stimulus that China has raised for nearly 20 years.
“By doing so, the U.S. has opened the door to China’s addition of export control measures for the future negotiation agenda,” she said.
In Washington, the federal appeals court agreed on Tuesday to allow the government to continue to collect tariffs, i.e. Trump imposed tariffs not only on China, but on other countries around the world, while the government made a ruling on its signature trade policy.
Trump earlier said he wanted to “open China” to U.S. products, the world's leading manufacturer.
“If we don't open China, maybe we won't do anything,” Trump said at the White House. “But we want to open China.”
–Moritsugu reported on Beijing. Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to the story.
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
