The U.S. and China reached an agreement for Beijing to rein in export curbs on critical minerals, and for the U.S. to "provide to China what was agreed to," President Donald Trump said June 11, offering few details about the substance of the deal.

Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic discussed export controls and trade remedies during a meeting in Paris last week, according to an unofficial translation of a Chinese readout of the talks. China said the two sides continued to discuss the EU's countervailing duties on electric vehicle imports from China (see 2408200020) and made some progress toward an agreement on price commitments.

President Donald Trump got the phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping he'd been seeking, and Trump wrote on social media that "there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products."

Cecilia Malmstrom, a former top European Commission trade official, said the EU is "painfully aware that the transatlantic relationship as we used to know it has been severely damaged."

Vice President JD Vance, meeting with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said that "of course, we have some disagreements on things like trade," but that he hopes their conversation "will be the beginning of some long-term trade negotiations and some long-term trade advantages between both Europe and the United States."

President Donald Trump touted his plan to get foreign health purchasers to pay more for pharmaceuticals, and U.S. consumers to pay less, as he signed an executive order seeking to equalize those prices.

The U.S. and China agreed to temporarily drop certain tariffs, during negotiations in Switzerland May 10-11, and plan to continue talks through a new trade dialogue mechanism, both countries said.

The Swiss president told reporters in Bern that her country would put together a letter of intent within two weeks, in the hopes of reaching an "agreement in principle" with the U.S., like the U.K. did (see 2505080033), and thereby avoid 31% reciprocal tariffs set to begin July 9.

The 10% tariff on the first 100,000 autos exported annually from the U.K. will be "all-in," according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. CBP couldn't clarify whether that would be done by removing most favored nation duties on U.K. autos and then applying a 10% tariff rate, or whether the additional tariff rate for in-quota autos would be 7.5%.

U.S. and Vietnamese officials met May 7 in Vietnam to discuss boosting trade between the two countries and possibly beginning negotiations on a new trade agreement, according to an unofficial translation of a Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade notice. Vietnamese Trade Minister Nguyen Hong Dien told Marc Knapper, the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, that the two nations should “promptly remove difficulties and obstacles” and “create favorable conditions for businesses in cooperation projects, as well as the purchase and sale of essential products.”