Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had a "truly great" meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during which the latter agreed to "continue the flow of Rare Earth, Critical Minerals, Magnets, etc., openly and freely."
"They were going to put export controls on products with even 0.01% of rare earth minerals produced or manufactured in China. They were going to put export controls on those. It was China versus the world. And we were able to negotiate a one-year pause on that in return for some things that the Chinese wanted," Bessent told Fox Business.