U.S. and China agree to create 'Board of Trade' to manage tariffs after Beijing summit

President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed in Beijing this week to create a new U.S.-China trade board, a mechanism both sides described as a way to manage tariff reductions and other implementation issues after their summit. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the two countries would also set up an investment board, while U.S. (bloomberg.com) Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the trade track was aimed at managing bilateral commerce in non-sensitive goods. The agreement came after months of tariff escalation and a 2025 truce that left many duties in place. (dnyuz.com) Greer said China had started to fulfill purchase commitments, especially in agriculture, even though tariff cuts had not yet been completed. ### What exactly did the two governments agree to build? Wang Yi said after the summit that the United States and China had agreed to establish boards on trade and investment. Bloomberg reported that Wang said the bodies would address mutual concerns including market access and agricultural products, and that working-level teams still needed to work out the details before the plan could be implemented. Jamieson Greer had previewed the idea on April 30, when he said after a call with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng that a government-to-government “Board of Trade” could help optimize bilateral trade in non-sensitive goods. Greer said at the time that the call also covered agricultural market access for U.S. producers. (bloomberg.com) ### How much tariff relief is actually on the table? The New York Times reported that Greer confirmed the new board would oversee a tariff reduction on about $30 billion in goods. The same report said the purchases under discussion would supplement an existing three-year arrangement for China to buy 25 million metric tons of soybeans annually. (bloomberg.com) Trump said he did not discuss extending the current tariff truce with Xi during the summit, according to Bloomberg. That leaves the board as an implementation channel rather than a broad new tariff settlement. ### What did Greer say China has already started doing? (bloomberg.com) Greer told Bloomberg Television that he expected China to commit to double-digit billions of dollars in U.S. agricultural purchases each year over the next three years. He said those purchases would cover more than soybeans and include a broader set of farm goods. The New York Times reported that U.S. officials said China had promised to expand purchases of farm goods and airplanes. (dnyuz.com) Greer said China was “starting to fulfill” those promises, but his public comments indicated tariff reductions were still pending. ### How did Beijing frame the broader relationship? (bloomberg.com) Xi Jinping said on May 14 that he and Trump had agreed on “a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability.” In China’s official account of the summit, Xi said the framework would guide relations for “the next three years and beyond” and described it as combining cooperation, competition within limits, manageable differences and “expectable peace.” (bloomberg.com) Wang Yi repeated that formulation in a briefing published on May 15, calling the summit “open, thorough, constructive, and strategic.” CNBC, citing China’s readout and a White House official, reported that Beijing was treating the strategic-stability language as the political frame for the summit’s outcomes. (nytimes.com) ### Are analysts treating this as a thaw? Tianchen Xu, a senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC the summit language pointed to a period of “managed stability” in which frictions would persist but be kept from spiraling. That assessment matched the structure of the trade agreement announced so far: a board to manage disputes and implementation, rather than a sweeping rollback of tariffs or export controls. (fmprc.gov.cn) Greer also said export controls on semiconductors were not a major topic in the Beijing talks, according to Reuters’ account of his Bloomberg TV interview. That suggested the summit’s concrete trade deliverables were concentrated on purchases, market access and tariff administration. (fmprc.gov.cn) ### What happens next, and who handles it? Working-level teams from both governments must now negotiate the structure and operating details of the trade and investment boards before they take effect, Wang Yi said. Greer, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Vice Premier He Lifeng and other trade officials have already been involved in the preparatory talks that preceded the leaders’ meeting in Beijing. (cnbc.com) May 15 was the date of Wang’s post-summit briefing, and the next visible milestone is whether U.S. and Chinese negotiators publish terms for the board, the tariff cuts and the agricultural purchase commitments discussed during the visit. (fmprc.gov.cn) (bloomberg.com) (money.usnews.com)