Trump Announces New Round of US-China Trade Talks

Beijing said that US President Donald Trump had a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in the United States, Trump initiated the call.

US stocks opened higher on Thursday, buoyed by investor hopes that a phone call between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping would break the deadlock in trade talks between the two countries. However, those gains quickly faded as traders awaited more details about the call.

🇨🇳🇺🇸Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday held phone talks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the latter's request.#china #US pic.twitter.com/kGMnmoIn8O

— Chinese Embassy in US (@ChineseEmbinUS) June 5, 2025

This deadlock between the world's two largest economies—which have traded nearly $600 billion in 2024—is weighing on Trump's broader tariff policy, which is already having tangible effects.

Trump was reportedly eager to speak with Xi, given the rapid deterioration in trade relations between the two countries over the past week.

Although the two sides agreed, after constructive talks in Switzerland last month, to a temporary reduction in tariffs, this fragile agreement has recently been threatened.

The Trump administration has publicly accused Beijing of dragging its feet in implementing its pledge to approve more exports of strategic minerals, a key provision reached during the Geneva negotiations.

China has expressed strong dissatisfaction with a recent US decision to impose additional restrictions on Chinese student visas and accused the Trump administration of undermining progress on trade by issuing a warning to US industry against using Chinese semiconductors.

The Trump administration has also imposed additional restrictions on microchip exports, a move the White House says is necessary to protect national security, while Beijing considers a purely punitive measure.

Thursday's call between the two presidents is their second direct contact this year. They previously spoke by phone on January 17, just before Trump's inauguration.

Prior to the recent call, Trump posted a message on social media praising President Xi, but also revealing some of his frustration.

He wrote on Wednesday morning: "I like President Xi, always have and always will, but he is very tough and very difficult to make a deal with!!!"

China is the primary target of Trump's efforts to use high, unilateral tariffs, ostensibly to rebalance America's trade relations with the rest of the world.

Trump raised general tariffs on Chinese imports to 145% last April, while temporarily reducing tariffs on most other countries to 10%. Beijing responded with retaliatory tariffs of 125% on American goods.

These measures led to a near-trade embargo between the two sides. However, the stalemate began to unravel in mid-May, following talks in Geneva that both sides described as "successful and constructive."