U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins weighs in on the nation’s commerce with China and the way the federal government shutdown is threatening SNAP funding on ‘Kudlow.’
President Donald Trump and Chinese language President Xi Jinping will kick off high-stakes talks amid their ongoing commerce dispute and geopolitical tensions.
Trump and Xi are anticipated to fulfill on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) summit in Busan, South Korea, of their first in-person assembly since Trump’s first time period. The assembly is anticipated to start within the morning hours on Thursday, Wednesday night time within the U.S.
Trump has expressed optimism about securing a take care of China even because the commerce dispute has escalated with the 2 sides making an attempt to exert leverage over the opposite in an eventual deal.
As Trump and Xi put together to carry discussions over the financial relationship between the 2 geopolitical rivals they lead, here is a have a look at a number of the key subjects they might talk about.
President Donald Trump and Chinese language President Xi Jinping will meet in particular person for the primary time since Trump’s first time period in workplace. ( Ju Peng/Xinhua by way of Getty)
AMERICAN SOYBEAN FARMERS FACE FINANCIAL CRISIS AS CHINA TRADE DISPUTE THREATENS LIVELIHOODS
Soybeans
China halted purchases of U.S. soybeans earlier this 12 months in retaliation for the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese language exports and as a substitute pivoted to purchasing soybeans from South America.
The transfer reduce off American farmers from the world’s largest importer of soybeans, a market through which they had been China’s main provider of soybeans courting again to earlier than Trump’s first time period. Soybean farmers are in a important interval for advertising their crop, and a failure to resolve the dispute would depart them struggling to search out various consumers and taking a monetary hit.
Forward of the Trump-Xi assembly, Reuters reported {that a} Chinese language state-owned agency moved ahead with the primary buy of U.S. soybeans from China in months, although the 2 commerce sources informed the outlet they do not anticipate a big rise in demand for U.S. soybeans after China’s purchases from South America.
China halted purchases of U.S. soybeans earlier this 12 months, although it has reportedly allowed some purchases to go ahead prematurely of the Trump-Xi assembly. (Scott Olson/Getty Pictures)
TRUMP, AUSTRALIA PM SIGN $8.5B CRITICAL MINERALS DELA TO COUNTER CHINA DOMINANCE IN RARE EARTHS
Fentanyl
Trump mentioned Wednesday he expects he’ll scale back tariffs on Chinese language items if China commits to curbing the stream of precursor chemical compounds used to make fentanyl, an artificial opioid that’s the main explanation for U.S. overdose deaths in recent times.
The president imposed 20% tariffs on China over fentanyl earlier this 12 months and likewise imposed them on Canada and Mexico, arguing the precursor chemical compounds are shipped by means of these international locations.
CHINA RESPONDS TO US-AUSTRALIA RARE EARTHS DEAL
Uncommon earths
The Chinese language authorities lately moved to implement more durable export controls on uncommon earth minerals, that are utilized in quite a lot of high-tech functions, starting from smartphones and electrical car batteries to navy radars and cruise missiles.
China is the world’s main producer of uncommon earths and has the biggest reserves, in keeping with a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS discovered that, in 2024, China’s mines produced 270,000 tons of uncommon earths, and the nation has 44 million tons of reserves.
The U.S. and Australia lately introduced an settlement to cooperate on growing uncommon earths in response to China’s transfer. The 2 governments agreed to every make investments $1 billion in mining and processing initiatives within the subsequent six months and to chop permits for mines, processing amenities and associated operations.
OIL PRICES SURGE AS TRUMP HITS RUSSIAN ENERGY GIANTS WITH SWEEPING NEW SANCTIONS
China and India are rethinking Russian oil purchases after the U.S. sanctioned Russian vitality firms over their position in funding the warfare in Ukraine. (Hussein Faleh/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
Russian oil and vitality
Final week, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Russian oil firms over their position in funding Russia’s warfare in Ukraine, which has change into the most important land warfare in Europe since World Struggle II.
The sanctions, aimed primarily at China and India as key vitality shoppers of Russia, give firms till Nov. 1 to chop their transactions with Russian oil producers or face dropping entry to the Western banking system.
Main Chinese language state oil firms, together with PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and Zhenhua Oil moved to halt purchases of Russian seaborne oil, a minimum of quickly, in response to the sanctions.
TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER ALLOWING TIKTOK DEAL TO PROCEED
Trump authorized a deal permitting TikTok’s acquisition that he’s trying to finalize with China. (AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Pictures)
TikTok
Trump mentioned he might be able to signal a last take care of Xi that permits TikTok, the short-form video platform owned by Chinese language firm ByteDance, to separate its U.S. operations from ByteDance in a transaction valued round $14 billion.
The president signed an government order late final month to permit the deal to proceed, although the U.S. and Chinese language governments hadn’t finalized the settlement that may enable the transaction to proceed.
Final 12 months, Congress enacted a regulation that banned TikTok and different apps, that are topic to the management of adversarial overseas governments like China’s, over considerations about knowledge safety and the usage of the platforms’ algorithms for overseas affect operations. It allowed for them to be divested from overseas possession to stay accessible to U.S. customers.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
The regulation took impact Jan. 19, 2025, after it survived a Supreme Courtroom problem and allowed a 90-day extension, although the president signed a number of 75-day extensions to conclude the deal.
Reuters contributed to this report.
