Trump said he expected Beijing would be “doing things” and work with him directly to address the export of precursor chemicals critical to manufacturing fentanyl. He didn’t provide further details on the magnitude of the tariff reduction.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday Trump was considering cutting the 20% tariff to 10% on Chinese goods over fentanyl.Trump also suggested he was open to providing China with access to Nvidia’s Blackwell AI processor as part of a trade deal, which would represent a major concession and rile up national security hawks in Washington.
“We’ll be speaking about Blackwells,” Trump said, touting the chip as “super duper” and years ahead of what was currently available from other countries. He said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had recently brought a version of the chip to the Oval Office for him to see.
AI bellwether Nvidia’s shares extended gains to 8.5% in Asian trading on the alternative platform Blue Ocean, signalling potential further gains when US markets open, after US President Donald Trump said he plans to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping about the company’s Blackwell chip.
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Huang said on Tuesday that Nvidia hasn’t yet sought licenses to send the Blackwell chip to China while at a company event in Washington, according to Reuters. Earlier this year, the US government said it would approve licenses for Nvidia’s H20 chip, which was specifically designed to comply with US export controls, though those shipments have not yet occurred.
China is eager to reduce the tariff burden on goods it sends to the US. Halving fentanyl tariffs would reduce the average tariff on most Chinese imports to around 45% — assuming Trump also holds off on other threatened tariffs — and would make Chinese goods more competitive with other US trading partners that have benefited in recent months from lower tariff rates.
Chinese and US officials reached a broad framework agreement over the weekend in Malaysia, setting the table for Xi and Trump to finalise a trade deal that would roll back many of the tariffs, fees, and export restrictions threatened or implemented in recent weeks.
The agreement is expected to otherwise keep tariff rates on Chinese goods steady, with Beijing delaying for at least a year the announced restrictions on its rare earths exports. Trump had earlier plans to hike the levies on most goods by 100% on Nov. 1 if he failed to strike a deal with Xi.
China is also expected to make a substantial soybean purchase, while the US will hold off on threatened export controls on software that would restrict Chinese access to a broad swath of technology. The pair are also expected to agree to reduce shipping fees and approve the sale of the US operations of ByteDance Ltd.’s social video app TikTok to a consortium organised by the Trump administration.
Trump downplayed the notion that he and Xi would discuss the fate of Taiwan, even as Beijing has signalled an interest in discussing the US position toward the island and US officials have said the pair plan to discuss an overarching global security effort. Still, the US has indicated it is unwilling to change its policy toward Taiwan.
“I don’t know that we’ll even speak about Taiwan,” Trump said. “I’m not sure — he may want to ask about it. There’s not that much to ask about Taiwan.”
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