Trump says U.S. has signed China trade deal, with plans for India next

The agreement follows initial talks in Geneva last month that led both sides to postpone massive tariff hikes that were threatening to freeze much trade between the two countries.

The U.S. and China have signed an agreement on trade, President Donald Trump said, adding he expects to soon have a deal with India.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg TV that the deal was signed earlier this week. Neither Lutnick nor Trump provided any details about the agreement.

“We just signed with China the other day,” Trump said late Thursday.

Lutnick said the deal was “signed and sealed” two days earlier.

It was unclear if the latest agreement was different from the one Trump announced two weeks earlier that he said would make it easier for American industries to obtain much-needed needed magnets and rare earth minerals. That pact cleared the way for the trade talks to continue, while the U.S. agreed to stop trying to revoke visas of Chinese nationals on U.S. college campuses.

China’s Commerce Ministry said Friday that the two sides had “further confirmed the details of the framework.” But its statement did not explicitly mention U.S. access to rare earths, minerals used in high-tech applications that have been at the center of the negotiations.

“China will approve the export applications of controlled items that meet the conditions in accordance with the law. The United States will cancel a series of restrictive measures taken against China accordingly. It is hoped that the United States and China will meet each other halfway,” it said.

The agreement follows initial talks in Geneva in early May that led both sides to postpone massive tariff hikes that were threatening to freeze much trade between the two countries. Later talks in London set a framework for negotiations and the deal mentioned by Trump appeared to formalize that agreement.