The United States and China announced several agreements on Thursday following the meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea, marking a certain de-escalation in the trade war between the powers. The agreements include tariff reductions, the lifting of export restrictions, and progress on issues such as Ukraine. "I would say that on a scale of 1 to 10, the meeting was a 12," Trump told the press aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington after the meeting, held at Gimhae Air Base in the South Korean port city of Busan and lasting just under two hours. The Chinese leader, who remained in South Korea to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in the nearby city of Gyeongju (Oct 31 - Nov 1), extended a hand for cooperation. Without offering an assessment of the meeting, he urged Washington to focus on the long term to avoid "falling into a vicious cycle of retaliation." "China never seeks to challenge or replace any country," Xi said, according to the official Xinhua news agency after the encounter. Trump was the first to announce the results, informing of his decision to reduce tariffs imposed on China in retaliation for fentanyl trafficking — for which he blames the Asian giant — from 20% to 10%, citing Xi's willingness to cooperate. "We agreed that he is going to work very hard to stop the flow," Trump emphasized. "We talked about it for a long time."
