A hush seemed to fall over the global trade winds as negotiators from United States and China sketched a new framework that might ease their long-standing friction. On the sidelines of an international gathering in Kuala Lumpur, the two sides quietly agreed to a “very substantial framework” — as Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, put it — which, if finalized, could avoid the looming imposition of 100 % U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and ease China’s planned export restrictions on rare earths and magnets.
It is a compact of cautious optimism. The U.S. side hopes to buy time — averting a drastic escalation of tariffs that were set to hit on November 1 — while China appears ready to defer its export-controls regime on critical minerals by perhaps a year, though Beijing remains tight-lipped on the details.
Some images generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
Sources: Reuters, The Guardian, The Washington Post, AP News, Times of India
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