September 28, 2026 — Wendy Cutler, a former Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, reacts to the agreement between the United States and China to lower tariffs on $60 billion worth of goods, following a summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Wendy Cutler — Senior Vice President, Asia Society Policy Institute
Finally, a concrete trade deliverable coming out of the Trump-Xi summit meeting.
The White House document is vague on when consumers may see these tariff cuts in stores. Both sides still need to go through their domestic procedures. For the United States, it’s unclear if this means seeking public comment on the product list. Although the way the document is written, it doesn’t seem to be very open to revisions.
Notably, the mandate of the Board of Trade is “optimizing” and not “managing” trade as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has been saying. The Board’s modest mandate reflects the current state of U.S.-China trade relations, where the bulk of trade increasingly falls into the sensitive basket, prompting both countries to reduce their reliance on each other rather than seek ways to enhance trade.
And the elephant in the room: U.S. access to critical minerals and magnets is still a formidable problem. China continues to restrict exports to the United States in this sector, which have been estimated to have dipped to about two-thirds of the levels of earlier shipments. Washington continues to press Beijing to release more, but the United States has not succeeded in getting China to pony up.
The trade and investment deliverables announced thus far are incremental at best, representing limited and low ambitions and featuring lots of process. Knowing that Trump and Xi are set to meet on two more occasions this year probably eased some of the pressure to deliver for this meeting.
That said, we can’t underestimate the importance of trying to keep bilateral economic relations stable: looking for small ways to trade and invest more, avoiding an escalation of tensions, and keeping Chinese critical minerals and magnets flowing.
Members of the media interested in interviewing Ms. Cutler should email [email protected].
