Updated June 27, 2025 at 11:29 AM EDT
White House officials are providing new information about a step toward a tariff deal with China after President Trump announced an agreement without providing details.
During a Thursday White House event, Trump announced, "We just signed with China yesterday, right? Just signed with China." Since then, White House officials have said that what was signed was not an agreement on tariffs.
One White House official, speaking anonymously, told NPR, "The Administration and China agreed to an additional understanding for a framework to implement" an agreement the two countries made in Geneva earlier this year. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, later clarified that the new agreement was about rare earth minerals, a Chinese export that's key in a wide range of goods, from tech devices and airplanes. This is one aspect of what the countries have been discussing during tariff negotiations.
The new information comes after several chaotic months of back-and-forth tariff announcements followed by subsequent adjustments.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed Thursday evening on Bloomberg TV that China would "deliver rare earths to us." He added that subsequently, "we'll take down our countermeasures."
In a statement, China's Ministry of Commerce also acknowledged that "further details of the framework" have been established.
"China will, in accordance with the law, review and approve eligible export applications for controlled items," they wrote. "In turn, the United States will lift a series of restrictive measures it had imposed on China."
The tariffs on Chinese goods have the potential to be globally destabilizing, and at one point reached 145%.
At a meeting in Geneva last month, U.S. and Chinese officials announced they had reached a temporary deal that would bring U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to 30%, with an Aug. 12 deadline to reach a more permanent agreement.
The high tariffs China and the U.S. imposed on each other's goods rattled markets as American consumers faced higher prices on a wide array of products, like car seats and clothing, while American farmers feared Chinese consumers would buy fewer of their now more expensive food exports.
All of this happens against a backdrop of broader tariff uncertainty, after Trump on April 2 announced tariffs on goods from nearly every country, with some of those tariffs exceeding 40%. Days later, he announced a 90-day "pause" on those tariffs, bringing them down to 10%.
That "pause" is set to end on July 9, raising questions about what happens after that. Trump said he would reach longer-term individual tariff deals with countries during the 90-day period, but the only deal announced has been with the UK, signed last week at the G7 summit.
In his Bloomberg interview, Lutnick said that the U.S. is close to making tariff agreements with 10 major trading partners.
The White House is now suggesting that July 9 is a soft deadline for those agreements. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business on Friday that several important individual tariff deals will be done by Labor Day.
"Secretary Lutnick said yesterday that he expects 10 more deals, so, if we can ink 10 or 12 of the important 18, there are another important 20 relationships, then I think we could have trade wrapped up by Labor Day," he said.
Copyright 2025 NPR
