Trump and Xi Reach Busan Trade Deal: Tariffs Cut, Rare Earths Pause and Soybean Purchases Resume

United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in Busan, South Korea, on Thursday, October 30, 2026, to trim United States tariffs on Chinese goods, pause China’s new rare earth export controls for a year, and resume Chinese purchases of American soybeans. The meeting, held at a South Korean air base on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, was the leaders’ first face-to-face meeting since 2019, and it lasted more than one and a half hours.

Trump described the session as an amazing meeting and rated it a 12 on a scale of 10. The talks closed a whirlwind Asia trip on which he also touted trade breakthroughs with South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian nations, and they followed a framework agreed by negotiators on the Sunday before the meeting that was aimed at avoiding 100 percent United States tariffs on Chinese goods and deferring China’s rare earth curbs.

Tariffs Cut From 57 Percent to 47 Percent

Trump said tariffs on Chinese imports would be cut to 47 percent from 57 percent, by halving to 10 percent the rate of tariffs related to trade in fentanyl precursor drugs. In a post after the meeting, Trump said China would work very hard to stop fentanyl and that the step would help the United States end the fentanyl crisis.

The tariff cut was presented as a gesture following what Trump described as a very constructive dialogue with Xi. The reduction does not remove the wider tariff burden on Chinese goods, but it lowers the headline rate by 10 percentage points and links the change directly to cooperation on fentanyl precursor drugs.

The pause would last for a year, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement.

Rare Earths Pause for One Year

China agreed to pause export controls unveiled this month on rare earths, elements with vital roles in cars, planes and weapons that have become Beijing’s most potent source of leverage in its trade war with the United States. The pause would last for a year, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement.

Trump said all the rare earth issue had been settled and that no more roadblocks would impede the flow of Chinese exports to the United States. A United States official travelling with Trump confirmed that Beijing had agreed to keep exports of rare earths flowing under a one-year arrangement that both sides expected to extend.

The one-year limit matters for manufacturers. Rare earths are used across high-tech manufacturing, electric vehicles and defence equipment, so a pause gives buyers time to plan, but the controls are suspended rather than permanently removed, and the question of what happens when the year ends remains open.

Soybeans, TikTok and Port Fees

Trump said soybean purchases would start immediately and described the farm deal as a big win for American farmers, saying China was in agreement on large amounts of soybeans and other farm products to be purchased immediately. China’s commerce ministry said the two sides had also reached consensus on expanding agricultural trade.

The two sides also agreed to work to resolve issues around short video app TikTok, which Trump seeks to bring under United States-controlled ownership, and they agreed to pause tit-for-tat port fees on shipping, designed to thwart dominance in shipbuilding, ocean freight and logistics.

The farm and shipping items sit alongside the tariff and rare earths decisions as the practical parts of the Busan understanding. Soybean sales matter to United States growers after a period in which Chinese purchases had stalled, while the port-fee pause eases a separate pressure point for shipping between the two countries.

Why the Meeting Mattered Beyond Trade

The Busan meeting was about more than the individual items on the table. It was the first direct meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies since before the pandemic-era gap in face-to-face contact, and it came after months in which tariffs had at times risen into triple digits on both sides.

That context is why the meeting drew attention far beyond trade negotiators. A truce between Washington and Beijing affects supply chains, energy markets and diplomatic talks elsewhere, and the Busan session took place while China was also engaged in high-level diplomacy with other major economies, including talks in Beijing between Xi and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the same day.

Inside the United States, the trade news also landed against a stronger economic backdrop, with the United States economy growing at an annualised 3.4 percent in the July to September quarter of 2026. Trump had also been pursuing parallel trade discussions with other partners, including talks with Canada on steel and autos earlier in the week.

• Meeting: Trump and Xi in Busan, South Korea, on October 30, 2026, on the sidelines of the APEC forum
• Tariffs: United States rate on Chinese imports cut to 47 percent from 57 percent, with the fentanyl-related rate halved to 10 percent
• Rare earths: Chinese export controls paused for one year, with both sides expecting an extension
• Agriculture: Chinese purchases of United States soybeans to resume immediately
• Other items: TikTok ownership issues to be worked on, and tit-for-tat port fees paused

What to Watch Next

What to watch next is only what the article has already set out: whether the tariff cut to 47 percent is implemented as announced, whether rare earth exports keep flowing through the one-year pause and whether the arrangement is extended, whether Chinese soybean purchases resume at the large scale Trump described, and whether the TikTok ownership issue and the paused port fees reach a final resolution. Until those steps are confirmed in practice, the Busan understanding remains a set of announced agreements whose effects will be tested in the months ahead.