With President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington approaching, tensions between the United States and China persist over extending the 2025 Busan trade agreement, despite reported progress on specific tariff-relief measures. Negotiations continue to stall primarily due to disagreements over China’s export controls on strategic minerals, particularly rare earths.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer voiced frustration on Monday, attributing uncertainty in the talks to China’s restrictions on rare earth exports. “They have limited rare earth exports. They’ve controlled them,” Greer told Bloomberg News, emphasizing the importance of securing incremental steps toward compliance before an extension can be finalized. Rare earth magnet shipments from China to the U.S. declined by 13 percent in August compared to the previous year, even though export approvals had somewhat resumed following recent trade discussions.

Greer’s comments came after an eight-hour negotiation session in New York involving senior officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Vice Premier He Lifeng. While both sides reportedly favor extending the Busan agreement, which is due to expire on November 10, Greer expressed skepticism that an extension would be announced imminently due to ongoing rare earth export concerns. A source familiar with the talks described the current negotiations as "shadow boxing," suggesting both parties are leveraging the stalemate to maximize their negotiating positions.

The Busan agreement, reached in October 2025 in South Korea, was initially designed to ease tensions triggered by the Trump administration’s tariff increases imposed the previous year. In response, China enacted broad export restrictions on seven rare earth minerals, causing global supply disruptions and highlighting the U.S.’s reliance on China for these critical materials. China possesses a dominant share of the world’s processing capacity for heavy rare earths used in defense, robotics, and electric vehicle technologies, as well as other key minerals such as graphite, gallium, and germanium.

During the negotiations, the U.S. and China also inaugurated the U.S.-China Board of Trade—a mechanism enabling tariff-reduced trade in selected “non-sensitive” sectors, capped at $30 billion for each country. Greer noted ongoing efforts to finalize a list of products eligible for this preferential trade, aiming to create stability within the broader bilateral relationship. Meanwhile, talks for a comparable Board of Investment remain in preliminary stages.

Sources indicate that Beijing favors an extension of the trade truce lasting through the remainder of President Trump’s term, whereas Washington prefers a shorter renewal. Despite these differences, both governments continue to engage in dialogue to prevent escalation and maintain the limited progress achieved so far.

In a separate context, former President Donald Trump delivered a speech to the United Nations General Assembly affirming his administration’s foreign policy actions and their purported global benefits. His remarks underscored a continuation of U.S. efforts to balance power dynamics amid ongoing geopolitical complexities linked to trade and security issues.