The Glossary
Busan Agreement
October 30, 2025 — the one-year truce: fentanyl tariff halved, rare earths suspended.
Definition
Meeting in Busan, South Korea, the two presidents reached the broadest de-escalation of the second term: the fentanyl tariff halved from 20% to 10% (cutting the overall U.S. duty level from roughly 57% to 47%), China's suspension of new rare-earth export controls for a year, resumed soybean purchases, stand-downs on queued escalations, a one-year truce to November 10, 2026, and creation of a Board of Trade. Its terms took effect November 10, 2025, alongside Chinese controls on fentanyl-precursor chemicals.
Why it matters
Busan established the pattern every later extension follows — tariffs for minerals, purchases for pauses, mechanisms for stability — and its January 2027 successor deadline is the single most consequential date in the file.