China confirmed on Friday details of a trade deal with the United States, saying Washington would lift “restrictive measures” while Beijing will “review and approve” items under export controls.
“It is hoped that the United States and China will meet each other halfway,” a spokesperson for the commerce ministry said in a statement.
The White House on Thursday said both sides had reached an understanding on issues including expediting rare earth shipments to the United States.
After talks in Geneva in May, Washington and Beijing agreed to temporarily lower steep tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s products.
China also committed to easing some non-tariff countermeasures, but US officials later accused Beijing of violating the pact and slow-walking export licence approvals for rare earths.
Both sides eventually agreed on a framework to move forward with their Geneva consensus following talks in London this month.
A White House official told AFP on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s administration and China had “agreed to an additional understanding for a framework to implement the Geneva agreement”.
This clarification came after Trump told an event that Washington had “just signed” a deal relating to trade with China, without providing further details.
Beijing confirmed Friday that an agreement had been reached.
“Following the London talks, the teams from both sides have maintained close communication,” the commerce ministry spokesperson said.
“Recently, with approval, both sides further confirmed the details of the framework,” they said, adding that China “will review and approve applications for the export control items that meet the requirements in accordance with the law”.
“The US side will correspondingly cancel a series of restrictive measures against China.”
“We hope that the US side will work with China, in line with the important consensus and requirements put forward during the June 5 talk between the two presidents,” said the spokesperson according to the South China Morning Post.
