‘We have a deal’: Trump claims breakthrough trade pact with China in ‘12 out of 10’ meeting with Xi

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States and China have reached a trade deal following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling the talks “very successful” and suggesting a formal signing could happen soon.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One after departing South Korea, Trump said the two leaders had agreed on “many very important points,” including on soybean purchases and tariffs related to fentanyl.

“We have a deal,” Trump said. “Now, every year we’ll renegotiate the deal, but I think the deal will go on for a long time. It’s a one-year agreement, and we’ll extend it after a year.”

Trump described the meeting, their first face-to-face encounter in six years, as “fantastic” and praised Xi as “a great leader of a great country.”

“On the scale from zero to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” he said. “Overall, the relationship is very, very important, and I think it was really good.”

Trump said large quantities of US soybeans and other farm products would be purchased “immediately,” though he didn’t provide figures or a timeline.

China had stopped purchases of American soybeans earlier this year after Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, leaving US farmers with a glut of unsold crops.

The president also announced he was cutting tariffs on Chinese goods tied to fentanyl by half, from 20% to 10%, saying the move took effect “immediately.”

He added that Xi had pledged to take stronger action to curb the flow of the deadly synthetic opioid.

“I believe he’s going to work very hard to stop the death that’s coming in,” Trump said.

The Chinese delegation has yet to comment on the outcome of Thursday’s talks, which took place at an airbase in the southern port city of Busan, near the site of an international summit.

At the start of their meeting, both leaders exchanged warm remarks. Trump said he believed the two countries would have a “fantastic relationship for a long period of time,” while Xi called it a “great pleasure” to meet again and said that occasional frictions between the world’s two largest economies were “normal.”

“You and I at the helm of China-US relations should stay the right course,” Xi said, adding that the two nations could “prosper together.”

Trump said he plans to visit China in April, with Xi expected to make a return visit to the US later in the year. “Whether it’s in Florida, Palm Beach, or Washington, D.C., he’ll be coming here sometime after that,” Trump said.

The meeting caps Trump’s five-day, three-country visit to Asia and comes as global markets and governments watch closely for signs of stability between Washington and Beijing after months of escalating tariffs, export restrictions, and trade tensions.