President Trump said he had a “very positive” call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday that focused solely on trade disputes and set the table for another meeting among high-level officials.
It was their first call since the start of the trade war and signaled a small step forward as the world’s leading economies seek a breakthrough in their dispute over U.S.-imposed tariffs and Beijing’s approach to exports.
Mr. Trump said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would represent the U.S. side at the next meeting.
“Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Mr. Trump, speaking later in the Oval Office, said the two sides “straightened out” some of the friction around Chinese exports of rare earth minerals and critical magnets.
Mr. Trump also said he accepted Mr. Xi’s invitation for him and first lady Melania Trump to visit China, and he extended the same invitation to the Chinese leader.
Both sides are hoping to resolve deeper trade disputes after a de-escalation meeting in May knocked down sky-high tariffs that threatened both nations’ economies.
Beijing wants Washington to drop its tariffs on Chinese goods and export controls on semiconductors.
Mr. Trump is trying to stem the flow of cheap Chinese goods that undercut U.S. manufacturers and get Beijing to open up its markets, while correcting trade practices the American side views as unfair. He also wants China to relax its tight controls on the export of rare earth minerals that automakers and military equipment manufacturers rely on.
“The call lasted approximately one and a half hours, and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries,” Mr. Trump said. “There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products.”
The Chinese embassy in Washington said Mr. Xi “held phone talks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the latter’s request.”
Unlike other countries that came to the negotiating table, China retaliated against Mr. Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs by imposing hefty levies on U.S. goods — an early sign that Mr. Xi had no plans to cater to Mr. Trump.
Although the Chinese economy is faltering, the U.S. faces pressures of its own, particularly price-sensitive consumers who will chafe at higher, tariff-driven costs in the checkout aisle.
Tit-for-tat tariffs exceeded 100%, prompting the talks in Geneva, Switzerland, that reduced U.S. tariffs to 30% on Chinese imports and Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods to 10%. Mr. Trump said that the deal remained in place.
Before the leaders’ call, there had been tension between the sides. Beijing said the U.S. undermined the Geneva truce by issuing warnings about Huawei chips for artificial intelligence and revoking student visas for Chinese students.
Mr. Trump said China violated the agreement by keeping a tight grip on the export of rare earth minerals.
The impasse led to efforts by the main leaders to resolve the dispute themselves.
“The conversation was focused almost entirely on TRADE,” Mr. Trump said. “Nothing was discussed concerning Russia/Ukraine, or Iran.”
U.S.-China talks are the marquee piece of trade negotiations unfolding on multiple fronts between the Trump administration and other countries.
Talks with the European Union are also front-and-center. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer cited progress with his European counterparts in Paris this week, and Mr. Trump met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House on Thursday to discuss trade and other matters.
Both men said talks were heading in a positive direction, though the EU was upset about Mr. Trump’s decision to double tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.
U.S.-German trade talks will “mostly be determined by the European Union, but you’re a very big part of that, so you’ll be involved,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Merz in the Oval Office.
Mr. Trump said he is fine with either imposing tariffs on Europe or making a deal. “I guess that’s what we’re discussing,” he said.
Mr. Trump’s tariff policy is fueled by his anger over large trading deficits the U.S. has with countries that send plenty of products to American consumers but don’t import nearly as much from U.S. producers.
The trade deficit with the EU was $235.6 billion in 2024, a 12.9% increase from 2023.
The trade deficit with China was $295.4 billion in 2024, a 5.8% increase from 2023, as imports from the Asian superpower far exceeded what the U.S. exported to China.
Mr. Trump has issued social media posts saying “closed markets don’t work anymore” and that China should accept more American farm products and other goods.
Disputes between China and the U.S. have spilled beyond trade of late. Beijing chafed at Mr. Trump’s decision to revoke visas of Chinese students at U.S. colleges, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently sounded the alarm about China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific, particularly against Taiwan.
Mr. Trump said he was fine with Chinese students entering U.S. schools so long as they’re vetted.
“It’s an honor to have them, frankly. We want to have foreign students, but we want them to be checked,” Mr. Trump said Thursday, adding he felt some Ivy League schools were too secretive about who was admitted.
Some of the tensions between the U.S. and China have deep roots. American leaders for years have complained that Beijing engages in unfair trade practices that go beyond tariffs, from stealing intellectual property to subsidizing industries that export a flood of cheap products, undercutting producers in other countries.
“The Chinese Communist Party seeks to become the dominant culture of the world, and it uses our knowledge, our innovation and our entrepreneurial spirit against us,” Mr. Lutnick told House lawmakers on Thursday. “It sends hundreds of thousands of students to train and learn here in order to build up their capacity to grow. They copy our innovation.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.