President Trump and Xi Jinping struck a deal this morning in their first meeting since Trump opened a trade war against China. Xi agreed to postpone controls on critical rare earth minerals, Trump said. Trump also said the U.S. would reduce tariffs on Chinese goods. It’s, in effect, a yearlong truce in the countries’ intense economic feud.
The deal came after a threat Trump made this morning on social media as he was arriving in Busan, South Korea, to meet with Xi: He said the U.S. would begin testing nuclear weapons for the first time in more than 30 years.
Trump’s post heightened the stakes of an already fraught conversation on trade, and the mood was tense when Trump arrived. The leaders shook hands, then Trump did all of the talking about striking a deal. Xi was silent.
After an hour and a half of negotiations, though, the leaders emerged with an agreement: China, which has tightened its controls on rare earth minerals used to make cars, phones and fighter jets, would postpone those strict new rules for a year. Separately, Trump said he would halve the 20 percent tariffs he had imposed to pressure China to do more to fight fentanyl trafficking.
The deal wraps up Trump’s tour of Asia. Over the past six days, he has hopscotched the continent chasing trade pacts and peace agreements. “Trump came here seeking deals, plain and simple,” says Katie Rogers, a White House correspondent who is traveling with the president. He seemed to get what he wanted. As Trump boarded Air Force One to head back to Washington this morning, he waved and pumped his fist.
Today’s newsletter looks at the Busan meeting and what Trump accomplished.
A meeting with Xi
One of the biggest issues facing Trump and Xi was how to handle China’s extensive restrictions on exports of rare earth metals. These are minerals with obscure names that the rest of the world can’t live without, our colleague Keith Bradsher writes.
China has been restricting them for more than a year, and the export controls have given Beijing enormous leverage. Trump came seeking concessions, and China agreed to lift some limits — but not all of them. The limits could continue to snarl global supply chains.
In response, Trump offered to reduce some tariffs on Chinese goods. This would bring overall tariffs on Chinese goods to around 47 percent, he said. (See our tariff tracker.)
The two leaders also agreed to a détente. They said they would extend a truce on tit-for-tat tariff escalations for one year, Chinese officials said. To sweeten the deal, China would purchase “massive amounts” of American soybeans, Trump said. “Our Farmers will be very happy!” he wrote on social media. Neither Xi nor Trump mentioned nuclear weapons or testing in the meeting.
Xi is a careful student of Chinese history who has responded to Trump’s trade war with steely determination. Still, Trump seemed to be happy with the outcome. On a scale of one to 10, he said he would rate his meeting with Xi a 12.
Trump’s deals
This week was about seeking reprieves for some of the trade problems Trump helped create, writes Ana Swanson, who covers trade. Katie told us from South Korea:
Trump has used the strength of the United States’ economy to wrestle his allies on tariffs and trade, and he has said repeatedly throughout this trip that America is the “hottest” country in the world. It’s something he says often at home, but it has a different resonance across the world, where he is all but compelling governments and companies to invest in the United States economy.
Beyond his deal with China, here’s what else Trump secured:
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South Korea: Seoul will invest up to $200 billion over a decade and set aside another $150 billion for its American shipbuilding operations. It’ll also buy 103 planes from Boeing, the White House said. The U.S. will lower tariffs on South Korean goods to 15 percent, from 25 percent.
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Japan: The country promised in July to invest $550 billion in the U.S. economy, and Trump lowered tariffs. During Trump’s visit, we learned where the money will go — A.I., nuclear reactors and elsewhere. Some pledges are not new. Many are not finalized.
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Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam: They agreed to work with Washington on export controls, sanctions and access to rare minerals — all of which help contain China. Trump said. Malaysia had agreed to invest $70 billion in the U.S., and Thailand had agreed to buy 80 American planes. Tariff rates stayed the same.
Trump also presided over a peace deal ceremony between Cambodia and Thailand and said he would reopen dialogue with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un.
A flattering trip
Asian leaders showered Trump with praise and adulation. South Korea’s president presented him with the nation’s highest honor for promoting “peace on the Korean Peninsula” and a replica of a golden crown excavated from an ancient tomb. (“I’d like to wear it right now,” Trump said.)
Officials in Japan and Cambodia told Trump they would nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump and Japan’s new prime minister shared lunch at a gold-trimmed palace. On the menu was something unusual: American rice, along with American beef, “deliciously made with Japanese ingredients,” a White House statement said. Watch this video to see how the new prime minister bonded with Trump:
More on nuclear power: Trump’s nuclear announcement may have been a response to Vladimir Putin, who said yesterday that Russia had successfully tested a nuclear-powered underwater drone designed to cause a tsunami that could devastate a coastal city.
HURRICANE MELISSA
The full scope of destruction brought by Hurricane Melissa, now a Category 2 storm, is beginning to come into focus. Officials and rescuers in several countries are still mapping out recovery efforts and counting the dead.
At least five deaths are confirmed in Jamaica, officials said, and 23 in Haiti. Melissa is moving through the Bahamas and is set to hit Bermuda tonight.
Follow live updates and see photos and video of the destruction. Here’s what we know so far:
Jamaica: The storm devastated the country to an extent never seen before, a U.N. official said, adding that it had directly affected more than a million people, a third of the population. One port town, Black River, “has literally been totally destroyed,” according to Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who saw it from the air.
Haiti: Children were among the 23 people confirmed dead. Dozens of people are missing.
Aid: The U.S. will help with disaster relief.
THE LATEST NEWS
Economy
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The chip maker Nvidia is now worth $5 trillion, a record for a publicly traded company.
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The Fed cut interest rates for a second time this year. Officials were worried about the labor market, though job and spending statistics are on hold during the government shutdown.
Middle East
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More than 430,000 Syrians have had to flee their homes in the year since the civil war ended, the U.N. says, driven by sectarian violence.
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Israel’s military released a drone video that it said showed Hamas members staging the recovery of hostage remains. The Times analyzed the footage and found that a body bag was shown to Red Cross representatives, then reburied and unearthed again.
Louvre Heist
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The French police arrested five more people in the Louvre jewelry theft, the Paris prosecutor said this morning.
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The two men who were already detained have “partially admitted” to the theft, officials said. The authorities have yet to recover the jewels.
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New details reveal that the thieves were good, but not flawless: Despite their daring entry and innovative plan, they had a surprisingly frazzled exit and left a trove of evidence.
More International News
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Russian soldiers entered Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian stronghold. Street battles are raging in the city.
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A socially progressive party tied for first place in the Dutch elections with the far-right party of Geert Wilders, who had forced the election but suffered major losses.
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The W.H.O. said it received reports that more than 450 people had been massacred at a hospital in a Sudanese city that paramilitaries recently seized.
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Bears have mauled more than 100 people in Japan this year. The government is preparing to send troops to stop them.
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A large police operation targeting drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro left more than 130 people dead, the deadliest crime crackdown in the city’s violent history.
Politics
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Obamacare prices will go up by about 30 percent for a typical plan if Congress doesn’t extend subsidies, new data shows. The subsidies are a sticking point in the shutdown.
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The Trump administration said it killed another four people on boats it claimed were trafficking drugs in the Pacific Ocean.
Other Big Stories
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The Justice Department put two federal prosecutors on leave after they described those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 as a “mob of rioters.”
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Andrew Cuomo has criticized Zohran Mamdani for living in a rent-stabilized apartment. But a Times investigation found he once lived in one himself.
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A white former sheriff’s deputy in Illinois was convicted of murder for shooting Sonya Massey, a Black woman who had called 911 seeking help.
COLD PLUNGE
Bowhead whales live a long time. Like, a really long time: 268 years.
For more than 1,000 years, the Inupiat people of Alaska have hunted the giant mammals, which can weigh as much as three garbage trucks. Generations of captains noticed the same individual whales at sea, over and over again. Some bowheads caught in the late 1900s had harpoons lodged in their blubber that dated to the mid-1800s.
New research reveals a possible source of the whales’ longevity: The Arctic water where they live puts stress on their bodies, and the proteins they make to protect themselves appear to extend their lives. Other mammals have that protein, too, but bowheads have much more. When scientists inserted the right bowhead gene into human cells, the rate of DNA repair in those cells doubled.
OPINIONS
Conservationists have spent too much time protecting animals and not enough supporting their coexistence with people, Arthur Middleton, Justin Brashares and Kaggie Orrick write.
Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens discuss the government shutdown.
MORNING READS
A tour to forget: The rollout for a new memoir by Karine Jean-Pierre, the Biden administration press secretary, has gone about as badly as it could. (Read her disastrous New Yorker interview and a searing review in The Washington Post.)
Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about a man who attacked two teenagers on a plane with a fork. The plane was diverted.
Sudden fame: Bjorn Andresen, who died at 70, attracted the world’s attention when he was 15 for his performance as an object of desire in the 1971 film “Death in Venice.” He came to resent how the movie used him.
SPORTS
World Series: The Blue Jays beat the Dodgers, 6-1, in Game 5. That put them one win away from their first victory since 1993. Game 6 is in Toronto tomorrow.
N.B.A.: The players’ union will appeal the league’s decision to put the Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier on unpaid leave after his arrest over accusations about a gambling scheme.
PAGE TO SCREAM
Gilbert Cruz, editor of The New York Times Book Review, explains three Stephen King movie adaptations in the video above. One of them, “The Shining,” has an entirely different ending in the book. And a famous character from the movie version of “The Shawshank Redemption” gets just a few paragraphs in the written story.
“There’s something that, in my opinion, is inherently cinematic about the way he writes,” Gilbert says of King.
More on culture
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Wole Soyinka, a Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian author, said the U.S. revoked his visa. He has been a vocal critic of Trump.
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Late night hosts joked about Asian leaders flattering Trump.
THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …
Bake crispy tomato-oregano chicken.
Try this energizing yoga routine. Just 10 minutes and low intensity. You can do it!
Choose a Halloween soundtrack, with songs from Björk, Florence + the Machine, Kate Bush and more.
GAMES
Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were include and included.
And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.
Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow.
Reach our team at [email protected].
Amelia Nierenberg contributed to this newsletter.
Lauren Jackson is an editor for The Morning and the host of Believing at The New York Times.
Evan Gorelick is a New York-based writer for The Morning, the flagship daily newsletter of The Times.
The post Trump and Xi Agree to a Yearlong Trade Truce appeared first on New York Times.
