Usa-China dice, London comparison opens a glimmer: hypothesis of a longer respite and rare earth

By our correspondent

London At least they continue to sit around a table and talk to each other: yesterday in the British capital two high -level delegations met, American and Chinese, for a new round of interviews aimed at deforusing the commercial war between Washington and Beijing. Keir Starmer’s government did not participate in the negotiations and limited himself to making logistics available: but, as they pointed out from Downing Street, a commercial war « is not in anyone’s interest ».

For the United States, the Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and the Treasury Scott Bessent arrived, in addition to the representative for trade Jamieson Greer, while the Chinese were led by the deputy prime minister He Lifeng, who before the start of the interviews found the opportunity to meet the Chancellor of the British chessboard, that is, the Treasury Minister Rachel Reeves.

The meeting in Geneva

It is a match against time, after last month, in Geneva, Americans and Chinese agreed a 90 -day respite in the battle of the duties and were allowed to find an agreement. The race to impose rates on mutual imports, launched by Donald Trump last February, a burst of reprisals that had seen the US duties on China touched 145%had resulted: after the Geneva respite, the Americans temporarily lowered the rates to 30%and the Chinese at 10%.

Yesterday’s talks arrived in the wake of the phone call, last week, between Trump and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the first after the outbreak of commercial hostilities: a conversation defined by the American president « a very good chat » which « was in very positive conclusions for both countries ».

The export of rare lands

At the center of yesterday’s interviews in London were the Chinese exports of rare lands, which are crucial elements for new technologies, from mobile phones to electric cars, and access to American technologies such as semiconductors and other key components for artificial intelligence. The presence of Lutnick’s negotiations, who was among the hardest supporters of the technological embargo towards the Chinese, borned that the Americans were Dipose and put something concrete on the plate. Beijing, on the other hand, produces 69% of world rare land and Americans need them for their most advanced industries: a compromise is therefore in mutual interest. In fact, despite the truce on the duties, in recent weeks Washington and Beijing have continued to exchange mutual accusations, with the Americans complaining about the failure to loosen the restrictions on the exports of Rare and the Chinese who replied that they could no longer buy software for their companies.

Relations with London

How many to the British, on the one hand, are finalizing the agreements achieved with the USA, which have allowed them to escape the duties imposed on the EU, on the other hand, the Chinese courts in search of economic exchanges capable of revitalizing the anemic growth of their economic: but a new front has opened on the construction, opposed by the Americans, of the new embassy of Beijing right next to the City. Luigi Ippolito

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