US-China Trade Council Weighs $60 Billion Tariff Proposal

By Tom Whitfield

A proposed $60 billion package of reciprocal tariff cuts would remove $30 billion in duties on each side, according to the U.S.-China proposal under discussion before President Donald Trump meets President Xi Jinping in Shenzhen on Nov. 19. The plan remains a proposal, but it gives farm exporters a measurable issue for the two governments to settle.

What did the trade council decide?

China’s Commerce Ministry said the two sides held “candid, in-depth and constructive exchanges” at the first meeting of their new trade council on Friday. The ministry’s Saturday statement said the talks covered tariffs, the reciprocal $30 billion-for-$30 billion arrangement, agricultural trade and other issues of mutual concern.

The ministry did not say the officials reached any agreement. It said both sides would continue using the council to address trade concerns and narrow outstanding issues, leaving implementation of earlier economic talks as the council’s first practical test.

What does the tariff package include?

The proposal followed Xi and Trump’s September meeting in Washington and has not been finalized. It includes roughly $17 billion of U.S. farm goods that China imported in 2024, making farm trade the clearest commercial measure tied to the broader tariff package.

Beijing has called implementation of the tariff arrangement a prerequisite for buying more U.S. farm products. That condition matters because Chinese purchases of U.S. farm goods other than soybeans are on track for a seven-year low this year, according to a Reuters analysis of customs data published earlier this month.

The analysis also highlighted the gap between the agreement and current trade: China pledged to buy $17 billion in U.S. farm products each year through 2028, but non-soybean purchases remain on course for their weakest level in seven years. The annual commitment therefore remains a pledge rather than a confirmed sales run rate, with delivery dependent in part on tariff implementation.

How does the trade truce affect exporters?

Both governments also extended their pauses on port fees for two more months. Beijing continues to hold its 24% tariff on U.S. goods in place, while U.S. companies are still waiting for Chinese rare-earth exports, which the U.S. ambassador said this week remain delayed.

The pause prevents a near-term change in port costs, and the unchanged 24% tariff keeps the current pricing barrier in place. The rare-earth delay leaves a separate supply constraint unresolved, so progress on farm tariffs would not settle every commercial friction between the two countries.

What happens to Nvidia export controls?

On a Friday press call, a senior U.S. official said: “In all of our discussions and negotiations with the Chinese, we do not negotiate American export controls.” The official added that export controls were not expected to enter the Shenzhen discussions and that the economic focus would be implementation of the trade agreement.

Trump is also not expected to raise allegations of a Chinese intelligence operation involving former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, senior U.S. officials said. Huang resigned this week after reports of an affair with Alice Huang, who is not related to him and was an executive at Singapore-based cloud company Megaspeed.

Megaspeed faces scrutiny over the possible diversion of restricted Nvidia chips to China, and China has called the allegations against Alice Huang baseless. For chip companies, the immediate distinction is firm: the meeting may advance tariffs and purchases, while U.S. export-control policy remains outside negotiation.

What could the Shenzhen meeting change?

The White House scheduled the Trump-Xi meeting for Thursday, Nov. 19, alongside the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Shenzhen. Trump also plans a three-way meeting with Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with nuclear arms cuts on the agenda, shortly after Xi said Taiwan’s reunification with China must happen.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, will accompany Trump, officials said. One official said Musk has substantial U.S.-China business interests and could benefit the president as an adviser, adding private-sector representation to a meeting whose stated economic agenda centers on tariffs and farm purchases.

The immediate test is whether the governments finalize the $60 billion tariff package and turn the $17 billion annual farm pledge into confirmed purchases. If non-soybean buying stays near a seven-year low and rare-earth exports remain delayed, lower tariffs would ease one cost without resolving those commercial constraints.