The Presidents of the United States and China, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, will meet on October 30 in Gyeongju, South Korea, announced the White House on Thursday, quoted by EFE agency. The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, on the last day of the American leader’s Asian tour.
According to the statement, Trump will leave for Malaysia on Friday, will visit Japan, and at the end of his visit to Asia will participate in the APEC summit in South Korea, after which he will return to the United States.
Last week, Trump admitted in an interview for Fox News that the new 100% customs duties he threatened to impose on China “are not sustainable”, but accused Beijing of “forcing this measure” by tightening control over rare metal exports.
“It’s not sustainable, but that’s the figure. They forced me to do this,” the American president declared.
The Trump administration intends to introduce these new tariffs and restrictions on software product exports to China starting November 1, nine days before the expiration of the previously agreed trade truce between the two powers. This had been established to allow the resumption of negotiations, after a start of the year marked by mutual increases in customs duties.
In response, China’s Ministry of Commerce issued a statement accusing the United States that, after the installation of the new Trump administration, “they have undermined the multilateral trade system based on rules”, by imposing customs duties, discriminatory trade policies and unilateral sanctions, actions that “contravene the commitments assumed within the World Trade Organization (WTO)”.
Rare metals, essential for modern technologies and the military industry, represent a sensitive point of the trade dispute, as China dominates the global market for these resources, and the restrictions imposed by Beijing have further strained bilateral relations.