In China Truce on Tariffs and Rare Earths, National Security Controls Are Bargaining Chip

Rather than advancing the U.S.-China relationship, the concessions that President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China agreed to in their meeting in South Korea on Wednesday appear to have largely rolled back the clock, returning to the terms of an earlier truce.

Mr. Trump agreed to reverse some of his tariffs and paused new fees on Chinese ships. China said it would suspend the rollout of rare earths restrictions introduced in October, and return to buying U.S. soybeans, in addition to a newer promise to crack down on shipments of chemicals used to make fentanyl.

But one of the reversals from the United States was more notable in the precedent it set. The Trump administration agreed to pause for one year a rule that expanded the number of Chinese companies restricted from access to advanced technology. The rule, issued just four weeks ago, extended the reach of the “entity list,” a kind of trade blacklist for foreign companies that pose a national security threat.

Former officials and analysts said Thursday that the move appeared to be one of the first concessions the United States had made on national security-related technology controls as part of a trade negotiation. They called it a potential breakthrough for the Chinese side, which has long pushed to negotiate with the United States over these types of measures, known as export controls.

Christopher Padilla, who served as an export control official in the George W. Bush administration, said it was a significant shift for U.S. policy. Chinese officials have consistently asked in talks with many presidential administrations for export control measures to be rolled back, he said.

“We all had the talking points,” Mr. Padilla said. “The first one is: ‘That’s a national security issue, and we’re not going to discuss it in a trade negotiation.’”