Trump, Xi to Meet at 11am on Thursday in South Korea
Donald Trump said he expects to lower tariffs the US has imposed on Chinese goods over the fentanyl crisis and speak with China’s Xi Jinping about Nvidia Corp.’s flagship Blackwell artificial intelligence chip, as leaders of the world’s biggest economies seek to ease tensions in a meeting on Thursday.
“I expect to be lowering that because I believe they’re going to help us with the fentanyl situation,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he headed to South Korea on Wednesday, a day before he’s slated to meet with China’s president.
The meeting between the two leaders will take place at 11 a.m. local time in Gyeongju, South Korea, the White House announced.
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 as low as 10% on Chinese goods over fentanyl. The Trump-Xi meeting is planned for mid-morning local time Thursday in South Korea, although the exact timing remains fluid, according to a White House official.
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.
Source : Bloomberg.com
