President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Busan, South Korea, for their first in-person meeting since Trump’s second term, on Oct. 30.

Both arrived under pressure to stabilize the trade war that was starting to hit markets and manufacturers alike. Tensions began to flare on Oct. 9, when China announced new restrictions on the export of rare earth materials.

Under the new restrictions, foreign companies must obtain Chinese government approval to export any product containing trace amounts of Chinese-origin rare earths materials.

Trump and Xi spent less than two hours negotiating the trade conflict during the meeting. 

About 90% of the rare earth that is processed is from China and goes into smartphones, solar panels and more. This is a key tool for U.S. manufacturing, which is why China restricted it.

China agreed to suspend new rare earth export restrictions for one year and curb exports of fentanyl precursor chemicals, and the U.S. lowered select tariffs from about 57% to 47%, including cutting the fentanyl-related rate from 20% to 10%.

Trump called the meeting “a twelve out of ten,” as China also pledged to buy 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans by early 2026 and 25 million tons annually for the next three years to ease the trade deficit and support American farmers affected by retaliatory tariffs.

After the meeting, Trump left without attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where Chinese and American leaders were supposed to meet. However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was in attendance. APEC represents 50% of the global GDP, as the largest members are China, U.S. and Russia, The Guardian reported.

At the conference, Xi told the Asian-Pacific leaders that China will protect and defend free trade.