Rare earth minerals at center of US-China trade talks after export drop

Officials from the U.S. and China met on Monday to begin a two-day session to discuss bettering trade ties and further deescalate the trade war. 

Details of the meeting have not yet emerged, though a source told FOX Business the discussions lasted nearly seven hours and prompted the delegations to order dinner in, as they continued negotiations. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the event as a “good meeting,” while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said it was “fruitful.”

The meeting, which will continue tomorrow, comes just four days after President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a phone call for the first time since Trump re-entered office and then hit Beijing with a whopping 145% tariff. 

China’s President Xi Jinping shakes hands with President Donald Trump before a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, in June 2019. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP / Getty Images)

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Though China initially responded with reciprocal 125% tariffs, both sides agreed to temporarily slash the trade dispute for 90 days last month, as negotiators worked to improve trade ties, temporarily putting in place a 30% tariff on Chinese goods, while Beijing implemented a 10% tariff on U.S. imports.

White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett on Monday said rare-earth minerals will be at the heart of what the administration is hoping to get out of this round of talks, particularly after it accused China of purposefully slow-rolling exports of the critical minerals. 

China last month dropped its supply of rare-earth minerals by nearly 50% from the year prior in what some reporting suggested was a move to highlight its trump card when it comes to the valuable elements. 

“The purpose of the meeting today is to make sure that they’re serious, but to literally get handshakes,” Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC on Monday. “Our expectation is that after the handshake… any export controls from the U.S. will be eased and the rare earths will be released in volume and then we can go back to negotiating smaller matters.”

Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, right, and China’s President Xi Jinping leave after their meeting in Hanoi on April 14, 2025. (Nhac Nguyen/Pool/AFP via / Getty Images)

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Hassett said Trump and Xi discussed the issue of rare-earth exports and magnets, of which China controls some 90%, and which are necessary for major industries like auto and tech. 

The director said the export slowdown could disrupt companies across the economy and noted Trump took the issue “very seriously.” 

Despite assurances from the president that customers would not feel the sticker shock at the checkout counter, rare-earth minerals were not the only item to take a hit.

Rare-earth mine in a town in Inner Mongolia in China. The mines north of town are one of the largest deposits of rare earth metals found in the world. (Bert van Dijk / Getty Images)

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According to a Reuters report, China’s exports to the U.S. dropped nearly 35% last month from the previous year, which is the sharpest drop since the coronavirus outbreak began to hit the U.S. in February 2020. 

Top administration officials from the U.S., apart from Bessent and Lutnick, that attended the meeting in London included U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, signaling how significant restoring rare earth exports is to Washington. 

Fox Business’ Edward Lawrence contributed to this report.