Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that the U.S. and China had agreed to a fresh deal that he called a “total reset” in trade.
The press conference came after a weekend of meetings in Geneva, where American and Chinese officials agreed to cut tariffs and ease tensions for the next 90 days. Trump said Beijing had “agreed to open” but made clear the agreement still needed to be finalized. He also said, “I’ll speak to President Xi, maybe at the end of the week.”
“We have to get it papered,” Trump said moments before signing an executive order on U.S. drug prices. “But they’ve agreed to open up China.”
The rollback is massive. The U.S. will slash tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, while China will drop its tariffs on U.S. exports from 125% to 10%. This deal doesn’t include all sectors, though. Trump said it leaves out key items like cars, steel, aluminum, and anything pharmaceutical. “We want to bring the pharmaceutical businesses back to the United States,” he said.
Trump slams EU threats as talks with China cool down
While this temporary truce with China got the spotlight, Trump turned it right back to Europe, slamming the European Union for being “nastier” than China. “The European Union is in many ways nastier than China, okay?” he said. “They treat us very unfairly.”
Trump warned that Brussels had been dragging its feet in trade talks and using threats instead of progress. Despite recent moves by the EU to offer concessions—including joint action against Chinese overproduction and promises to ease up on certain regulations—Washington hasn’t budged on its tariffs.
Last week, Brussels floated the idea of hitting €95 billion worth of U.S. goods with retaliatory tariffs if talks didn’t move forward. One of Trump’s top trade advisers, Peter Navarro, responded by calling the proposed move “provocative.” But Trump said he wasn’t worried. “Oh, they’ll come down a lot. You watch. We have all the cards.”
Trump considers attending Russia-Ukraine talks, signs drug price order
Outside of trade, Trump also said he might fly out for Russia-Ukraine talks scheduled for Thursday. The meeting, potentially taking place in Turkey, is being discussed by both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy said he was open to sitting down, and Putin responded, saying Russia was ready for direct talks.
“I was thinking about flying over,” Trump said when asked about attending. “I don’t know where I’m going to be on Thursday; I’ve got so many meetings. But I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen. But we got to get it done.”
Trump also officially signed a major executive order to cut prescription drug prices. The order links what Medicare pays for certain drugs to the prices paid by other countries. It’s part of his continued effort to restructure drug pricing after returning to office.
The order reads:- “The Secretary of Health and Human Services will establish a mechanism through which American patients can buy their drugs directly from manufacturers who sell to Americans at a “Most-Favored-Nation” price, bypassing middlemen.”
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