President Trump floated a list of demands for China, citing rare earths, fentanyl, and soybeans as his top issues to address with Beijing at the negotiating table and before the fragile tariff and trade truce between the world’s largest economies expires.
“I don’t want them to play the rare earth game with us,” Trump said on Air Force One on Sunday.
In a move that analysts said was aimed squarely at China, Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday signed a deal that the White House said would help supply the US with the critical minerals.
Last week, Trump said threatened high tariffs on Chinese goods were “not sustainable,” easing fears of further trade escalation between the countries and helping boost stocks. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the countries will hold talks later this week, and Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet later this month, even as Trump has mused about whether such a meeting will actually happen.
The US and China have seen their fragile trade relationship wobble further in recent weeks, with Trump confirming last week that the countries are in a trade war.
China accused the US last week of causing “panic” over Beijing’s export controls on rare earth materials, according to a report in China’s state newspaper, the Global Times.
Trump said the US would impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods starting on Nov. 1 over Beijing’s plan to impose new export controls on rare earth minerals.
Read more: What Trump’s tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet
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The White House is ready to ease tariffs on the US auto industry, delivering a major win for carmakers who have lobbied to reduce the fallout from higher import duties. The Commerce Department is set to announce a five-year extension that allows automakers to reduce what they pay in tariffs on imported car parts.
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Americans are set to pay more than half of President Trump’s tariffs as companies raise prices, according to Goldman Sachs.
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Early next month, the US Supreme Court is set to hear a challenge to Trump’s most sweeping tariffs — the “reciprocal” country-by-country duties that you can see in the graphic above. A ruling against the tariffs — which would be in line with lower-court decisions — could have significant ramifications for Trump’s tariff strategy.
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New duties on kitchen cabinets and vanities took effect Oct. 1.
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Tariffs on timber and certain wood products (like furniture) took effect Oct. 14.
LIVE 63 updates
Tue, October 21, 2025 at 10:30 PM UTC ‘Kink’ in VIX curve shows anxiety over Trump’s meeting with Xi
Rising trade tensions have caused options traders to pile into defensive stocks as a hedge against big stock market swings before President Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping are set to meet.
Bloomberg News reports:
Tue, October 21, 2025 at 6:37 PM UTC Trump wobbles on Xi meeting: ‘Maybe it won’t happen’
President Trump on Tuesday wavered over whether a highly anticipated meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping would actually happen later this month.
“Maybe it won’t happen,” Trump said at a luncheon he hosted for Republican senators, per Bloomberg. “Things can happen where, for instance, maybe somebody will say, ‘I don’t want to meet, it’s too nasty.’ But it’s really not nasty. It’s just business.”
The comments were the latest in a series of Trump’s waffling over the anticipated negotiations, which still do not have a confirmed date. Even as Trump raised questions over the status of the meeting, he said he expected trade talks with China to be successful.
“I have a great relationship with President Xi. I expect to be able to make a good deal with him,” Trump said. “I want him to make a good deal for China — but it’s got to be fair.”
- Tue, October 21, 2025 at 3:38 PM UTC GM’s tariff pain is easing — thanks to higher prices, CFO says
Yahoo Finance’s Francisco Velasquez reports:
China responded on Tuesday to President Trump’s rare earth deal with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese by saying resource-rich rare earth countries should take a “proactive role” in helping to stabilize rare earth supply chains.
“The formation of global production and supply chains is the result of market and corporate choices,” a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, according to a report from NBC.
“Resource-rich nations with critical minerals should play a proactive role in safeguarding the security and stability of the industrial and supply chains, and ensure normal economic and trade cooperation,” the statement added.
Rare earths have become a critical talking point within the trade war between the US and China. China, which holds the largest reserve of rare earth resources, recently restricted exports of the key material used in technology and other products. This prompted Trump to say he would add an additional 100% tariff on goods from China. The moves from both Beijing and Washington have caused some to worry about the already fragile trade truce between the two nations.
President Trump said that the US commands “great respect” from China and that he also expects a “fantastic deal” to be established with China’s leader Xi Jinping. The US president made the comments on Monday, following weeks of back and forth between Washington and Beijing.
AP reports:
The US-Australian rare earth deal announced on Monday not only aims to boost US access to rare earth materials — it also helps set the stage for negotiations with China. The deal between Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is aimed at China’s President Xi Jinping, whose government recently restricted exports of its rare earth materials.
As the US and China head back to the negotiating table next week, Yahoo Finance’s Washington correspondent Ben Werschkul delves into Trump’s latest plan to befriend China’s regional rivals:
Mon, October 20, 2025 at 6:30 PM UTC Australian rare earth stocks jump on US-Australia critical minerals agreement
Shares in Australian rare earths companies spiked after President Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced an agreement that will give the US increased access to Australia’s supply of critical minerals.
Rare-earths producer Lynas Rare Earths Limited (LYSCF) jumped by more than 14% in the hours after the trade deal announcement, while Australian Strategic Materials (ASMMF) — a vertically integrated extractor, refiner, and manufacturer of metals and alloys including rare earth products — rallied by more than 24%.
Just five months ago, Lynas became the first producer of so-called “heavy” rare earths outside China, making it a crucial player in the global rare earth supply chain.
Shares in Nova Minerals (NVA), an Australian mining company that recently saw interest from the Trump Administration due to a gold prospect in one of the company’s Alaskan mining projects, were trading down by more than 25% after a surge of more than 100% last week when news broke that the company was briefing the White House.
The deal between the US president and Australian prime minister represents of a pipeline of $8.5 billion in critical minerals, the Australian PM said at the White House.
“In about a year from now, we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.
Australia sits on the world’s fourth largest deposits of rare earth minerals, with more than five million tons. Over the course of the past month, more than a dozen Australian mining companies met with US administration officials in Washington about resource pipelines and potential investments, according to Bloomberg.
The US and Australia on Monday signed a deal on rare earth minerals, in what could end up being a cudgel for President Trump in his administration’s upcoming trade talks with China.
The agreement would increase US access to critical minerals and rare earths, the White House said, at a time when China has taken steps to curb its own supply of those materials.
“In about a year from now, we’ll have so much critical minerals and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them,” Trump said at the White House during a meeting with the Australian prime minister.
The White House fact sheet has some more details on the agreement.
Our markets blog will cover some of the movers in this space, as well.
Bloomberg reports on more comments from President Trump on coming trade talks with China:
Trump also said he expects to make a visit to China in early 2025.
President Trump has said rare earths, fentanyl, and soybeans are his top issues with China, days before Washington and Beijing head back to the negotiating table and the trade truce nears expiration.
Trump also suggested Beijing failed to curb fentanyl exports, which he alleged is contributing to America’s opioid crisis.
Bloomberg News reports:
China’s economic growth slowed to the weakest pace in a year in the third quarter despite a boom in exports, according to data on Monday from China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
A prolonged property slump and trade tensions have hurt demand, putting pressure on policymakers to provide more stimulus.
Monday’s data showed that the gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.8% from July to September, slowing to 5.2% in the second quarter.
Reuters reports on the takeaways from analysts:
- Sun, October 19, 2025 at 1:00 PM UTC Coffee break may be coming, with legislation introduced to exempt it from Trump’s tariffs
The rising cost of coffee beans has pushed restaurants and coffee shops across the US to pass along those price increases to consumers, as the effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to ripple across the economy.
But there may be a break on the horizon for coffee drinkers, CNN reports, with two members of Congress introducing legislation to give coffee products an exemption.
Amid tense US-China trade relations Chinese exporters have given up on the US and responded to high duties by selling more goods to buyers in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa.
Reuters reports
Sat, October 18, 2025 at 5:05 PM UTC Ulysse Nardin CEO says tariffs won’t ‘massively’ impact the luxury Swiss watchmaker’s business
As luxury Swiss watchmaker Ulysse Nardin debuted its latest high-end Freak watch at New York Watch Week, CEO Patrick Pruniaux said he’s not concerned about the impact President Trump’s tariffs may have on its bottom line, Pras Subramanian reports:
Sat, October 18, 2025 at 2:57 PM UTC Uncertainty over Russian oil is partly about Trump’s global tariffs
Oil markets are trying to make sense of claims from Donald Trump about whether India and China will continue to purchase Russian oil, offering the latest example of how the president is willing to intertwine energy, trade, and geopolitics.
This past week has seen Trump repeatedly claim that India is soon set to buy “no oil” from Russia, which, earlier in the week, Indian officials declined to confirm.
Trump was unbowed, saying Friday at the White House, “They’ve already de-escalated.”
Equally significant as both sides navigate the oil issue is the fact that Indian officials were also in Washington this past week for the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank, where they reportedly talked trade with the Trump administration.
On the table are 25% blanket duties on India over the issue of Russia oil purchases, on top of 25% “reciprocal” duties.
The White House on Friday formalized President Trump’s plan for 25% tariffs on medium and heavy-duty trucks and offered new details about how they will work, including a sizable exception for auto parts after a flurry of truck-maker objections.
The new tariffs — set to take effect on Nov. 1 — include a topline rate of 25% on everything from box trucks to the largest trucks on the road. The new tariffs will also have a 10% rate on foreign-made buses.
The picture for trucks that use foreign parts is more complex after automakers noted that their supply chains often mean even “American-made” cars and trucks require a substantial number of foreign-made parts.
The new rules have a similar 25% top-line rate for parts but also expand the auto offset adjustment program — which was previously rolled out for consumer vehicles — to trucks.
This program allows much of an automobile’s foreign parts to be offset up to 3.75% of the final retail price.
For many automakers that are not overly reliant on foreign parts, that provision effectively wipes out the costs of tariffs completely. “The idea here is we want domestic vehicle manufacturing,” said a senior administration official briefing reporters about the details of the plan.
The move is a formalization of a promise Trump made earlier this month.
“Beginning November 1st, 2025, all Medium and Heavy Duty Trucks coming into the United States from other Countries will be Tariffed at the Rate of 25%,” he wrote on Truth Social on October 6.
- Fri, October 17, 2025 at 7:31 PM UTC Swiss minister speaks to Bessent, gives no sign of progress on tariffs
Reuters reports:
President Trump and Germany’s Merck KGaA (MRK.DE) have struck a deal to provide discounted IVF drugs to the US in exchange for tariff relief.
Bloomberg News reports:
- Fri, October 17, 2025 at 2:56 PM UTC China accuses US of undermining WTO with tariffs, sanctions
China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Friday that it will escalate actions against the US at the World Trade Organization, claiming that the United States has been undermining the WTO since President Trump took office in January.
According to Reuters, China intends to scrutinize US trade policies using the WTO review process and work with members to restore a functioning appeals process for enforcing rules. The ministry alleged that US discriminatory policies, reciprocal tariffs, and unilateral sanctions violated WTO commitments.
President Trump on Friday said threatened high tariffs on Chinese goods were “not sustainable,” easing fears of further trade escalation between the countries.
“But that’s what the number is,” he said during an interview with Fox Business. “It’s probably not [sustainable] — you know, it could stand, but they forced me to do that.”
Trump also suggested a long-planned meeting with Xi Jinping was still on track, saying he planned to meet with China’s leader in two weeks.
Watch the clip of the interview here: