China confirms trade agreement reached with the US

(AFP) China announced Friday that it confirmed the "details" of a trade deal with the United States, saying Washington would remove a series of "restrictive measures" while Beijing will "review and approve" items subject to export controls.

"Hopefully, the U.S. will meet China halfway," a spokesman for Beijing's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

The White House reported Thursday that the two sides had reached agreement on issues such as the expediting of rare earth shipments to the United States.

Rare earths are crucial for electric batteries, wind turbines and defense systems (missiles, radar, satellites).

Following a round of negotiations in Geneva in May, Washington and Beijing agreed to temporarily reduce each other's high tariffs on their products.

China also pledged to soothe some non-tariff countermeasures, but U.S. officials subsequently accused Beijing of violating the deal and slowing approval of rare earth export licenses.

The two sides finally agreed on a framework for moving forward on their Geneva consensus following talks this month in London.

A White House official told AFP Thursday that the Trump administration and China "agreed to an additional understanding for a framework to implement the Geneva agreement."

This clarification came after Trump claimed at an event that Washington had just signed a trade-related agreement with China, without giving further details.

Beijing confirmed on Friday that an agreement was reached.

"Following the London talks, the teams from both sides have maintained close communication," the Commerce Ministry spokesman said.

China "will review and approve applications for the export control items that meet the requirements in accordance with the law," he added.

"The U.S. side will correspondingly cancel a series of restrictive measures against China," he stressed.

On the other hand, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun reported that Foreign Minister Wang Yi will travel to Europe next week for talks with his counterparts from the European Union, Germany and France.