In a major breakthrough, the U.S. and China have signed a trade deal following up on the negotiations they had in London earlier this month. This was confirmed by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday.

China signaled it would approve the export of rare earth minerals in a statement Friday hours after White House officials said that the US and China had signed a trade agreement to work out tensions linked to US access to the key material.

US and China finalize rare earth trade deal as Washington prepares broader trade pacts with key partners including India and Japan.