US officials expect China to delay introducing export controls on rare earths, after two days of talks in Malaysia raised hopes that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping would agree to extend a trade truce at their high-stakes summit this week.
Beijing’s announcement of the sweeping controls this month triggered a sharp escalation in trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies and threatened to torpedo plans for Trump and Xi’s first summit since 2019.
Following a weekend of negotiations in Kuala Lumpur, a senior US official told the Financial Times that Beijing’s likely delay was prompted by Washington’s threat of additional tariffs as well as pressure from other countries that rely on the minerals.