The United States and China are poised to extend the trade truce they negotiated in South Korea by up to a year when President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping are expected to meet in Beijing in early April, according to several people familiar with the discussions.
The
uneasy truce, struck last October after a bilateral meeting between the two leaders in Busan, rolled back tariffs and export controls after months of spiralling tensions marked by triple-digit “retaliatory” levies and Beijing’s
sweeping boycott of US agricultural goods for much of 2025. Since the reprieve, China has
resumed purchases of American soybeans, a
politically sensitive crop in the US.
Extending the informal months-long understanding, a step seen by officials as realistic and achievable, would anchor the summit around short-term economic wins, including fresh Chinese purchase commitments, the sources said.
Trump is pressing for tangible deliverables ahead of November’s midterm elections amid mounting concerns about maintaining his congressional majority. After his nearly
two-hour-long call with Xi last week, Trump shared that Beijing was considering buying more soybeans from the US.
Trump is expected to travel to China in early April, according to four people familiar with the plans. An initial arrival date under consideration was March 31, leading to a bilateral meeting with Xi in the first week of April as part of a visit lasting about three days, two of the people said.
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The timing remains under discussion, the sources added, as Beijing weighs scheduling around the
Ching Ming, or tomb-sweeping, festival, which falls on April 5.
