US President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping upheld diplomatic formalities during the two-day state visit, but Trump returned home on Friday (15 May) with few concrete achievements beyond a leisurely walk in Xi's rose garden.

The summit covered key topics affecting the EU, including rare earth minerals, Chinese electric vehicles, the war in Iran, and international tariff strategies.

Trump secured pledges from China to purchase American oil, soybeans, and 200 Boeing aircraft. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer informed reporters that a multibillion-dollar agricultural export deal with China was likely following the Beijing talks.

Greer indicated that the one-year trade truce with China, finalized last October, might be prolonged soon.

"There's certainly a willingness on both sides that - if this continues to work out well for each country - to continue that," Greer remarked.

China introduced tighter export permit rules for rare earths last year, capping off a cycle of retaliatory tariffs with the US sparked by Trump's 'Liberation Day' levies in April.

Yet a truce was negotiated with the US and subsequently extended to the EU.

EU: 'Take us seriously'

At the EU's EU-China forum on Friday - mere hours after Trump's exit - EU Ambassador to China Jorge Toledo informed attendees that ties with Beijing are "complex," framed by the European Commission as involving "partnership, competition, and systemic rivalry."

Toledo stressed that the bloc's ongoing relationship with China rests on Beijing addressing European priorities: "market access, subsidies, industrial capacity, critical raw materials, security, human rights, and China's stance on Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine."

The EU has navigated years-long trade clashes with China across various sectors, with officials highlighting subsidies for its electric vehicle sector, curbs on rare earth supplies, and hurdles for European companies pursuing government contracts.

"China currently accounts for 30 percent of global production but just 13 percent of consumption. That is an imbalance that the world just cannot digest," Sabine Weyand, the EU's departing chief trade negotiator, told MEPs on the international trade committee earlier this month.

More widely, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has criticized China for purposeful overproduction aimed at undercutting prices for steel, aluminium, and automobiles.

The EU's trade deficit with China climbed to €360bn in 2025, deemed "unbalanced" and "unsustainable" by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on his April state visit to Beijing.

During his December trip, French President Emmanuel Macron warned of potential EU tariffs unless China acts to shrink its surplus, which he termed a "global imbalance."

Three-way trade strains

The EU's trade dynamics with the Trump administration are arguably just as tense as its relations with China.