Jonathan Cheng
PEKIN – China declared on Saturday that it had reached an agreement with the United States to establish bilateral trade and investment councils, fulfilling one of the expected outcomes of President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing and solidifying a trade truce between the world’s two largest economies. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce, in a statement released Saturday night in Beijing, also said that the United States had agreed to sell airplanes, aircraft engines, and aircraft components to China, which is a significant area where the country lags behind the United States.
This statement is the first public confirmation by Beijing of a trade agreement between the two parties at the end of a two-day summit in Beijing between Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. However, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has characterized these results as preliminary, adding that negotiators from both sides are working to finalize the details of the agreed points.
A Sino-American trade council would be used to discuss the reduction of tariffs on certain products, the Chinese ministry specified, without providing more details. The ministry also did not provide details on the function of a Sino-American investment council, although the White House stated on Thursday that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping had discussed “increasing Chinese investments in our industries.”
U.S. Commerce Representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday that the trade council would help both countries decide which exports are subject to tariffs and which are exempt. “We will have conversations with the Chinese about the products we should sell them – agriculture, Boeing, and medical devices – and about the types of products we want to get from them, whether it’s consumer goods, low-tech products, or other inputs we don’t have here,” he said on ABC’s “This Week” program.
“Most importantly,” added Jamieson Greer, “we have a strategic stability with China.”
A senior U.S. official stated ahead of last week’s summit that an investment council would allow the two governments to review Chinese investment projects in the United States and would not interfere with existing investment control entities, such as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
The issue of Chinese investments in the United States is contentious, with state governments erecting barriers to projects involving Chinese companies.
Simon Evenett, a professor of geopolitics and strategy at IMD Business School in Switzerland, argued in an article last week that a previous American attempt to establish a similar mechanism to manage trade with Japan in the 1980s had inflicted lasting damage on U.S. industries, increased consumer prices in the United States, and had not significantly affected the trade balance.
Beijing described the agreement to establish trade and investment bodies on Saturday as part of a broader effort to achieve a positive balance between the two parties. The Ministry of Commerce indicated in the same statement that both countries would reduce trade barriers for agricultural products.
Saturday’s statement also served as confirmation of Donald Trump’s announcement during his visit, stating that Beijing had agreed to buy 200 Boeing aircraft, fewer than the expected 500.
Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after the summit that China could buy up to 750 Boeing aircraft “if they do a good job,” without providing further details.
Aviation is one of the areas where China has not yet caught up technologically with the United States. The Chinese national aircraft manufacturer, Comac, based in Shanghai, has struggled to develop a competitive domestic alternative to Boeing and European Airbus commercial aircraft. Comac’s main commercial aircraft model, the C919, heavily relies on American company technology.
An American guarantee to provide aircraft, aircraft engines, and aircraft components to China would ensure a steady supply of necessary inputs as Beijing seeks to match and ultimately surpass the United States.
This article has been automatically translated by Dow Jones from the original English version to French using artificial intelligence technology. The English version should be considered the official version of this article. Please email service@dowjones.com if you have any feedback on this translation.
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May 17, 2026 15:25 ET (19:25 GMT)
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May 18, 2026 01:31 ET (05:31 GMT)
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