Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday that U.S. tariff levels on Chinese imports will not change from their current levels, even as a trade deal between Washington and Beijing has yet to be finalized.
Asked on CNBC’s “Money Movers” if the current U.S. tariffs on China are not going to change again, Lutnick replied, “You can definitely say that.”
President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday morning that U.S. duties on China will total 55% — but a White House official told CNBC soon after that that figure is not new.
Rather, it comprises the existing 30% blanket U.S. tariffs on China, plus the 25% tariffs on specific products that also were already in place, the official said.
Trump sent his all-caps post hours after Lutnick and other trade negotiators for the two economic superpowers concluded high-level talks in London.
The president said the deal is “done,” but added that it is still “subject to final approval” between himself and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump said China’s tariffs on the U.S. will stay at 10%, where they have stood since both sides agreed last month to temporarily pare back retaliatory duties on each others’ goods.
That 90-day reprieve came after initial talks in Geneva, Switzerland, that yielded a tentative de-escalation on tariffs but left other key sticking points unclear.
Trump in Wednesday’s post also wrote that “full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China” as a result of the London talks.
In a follow-up, he wrote, “President XI and I are going to work closely together to open up China to American Trade.”
Lutnick said on CNBC that the takeaway from this week’s negotiations was that “they set up the Geneva truce.”
Beijing was “slow-rolling” its export of rare earths, prompting retaliation from Washington — including a crackdown on visas for Chinese students at U.S. universities, Lutnick said.
“We were at mutual assured annoyance,” the secretary said. But Trump’s one-on-one phone call with Xi last week “changed everything,” Lutnick said.
“They are going to approve all applications for magnets from United States companies right away,” he said.
But Lutnick’s optimism papered over unanswered questions that importers have about China’s promises.
For example, China has agreed to issue only temporary, six-month licenses to U.S. companies seeking to import rare-earth minerals and magnets from China, The Wall Street Journal reported.
This would allow Beijing to revisit its decision to issue any given license every six months, creating uncertainty in the supply chain for U.S. companies.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Lutnick’s remarks, or for additional details on the London agreement terms.
