USTR Greer says U.S.-China trade talks yield tariff exemptions, details due Monday

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday that Washington and Beijing have reached agreements covering a subset of goods the two countries can trade on more favorable terms. "We've actually reached agreement with the Chinese on a number of these things," Greer said, pointing to U.S. agricultural products and medical devices and to Chinese consumer goods considered non-sensitive . Fox Business separately reported that the two sides will announce tariff exemptions on agricultural, medical and low-tech goods .

The design matters as much as the list. Greer said the aim is to carve out areas of trade that stay insulated from future tariff measures, so that these goods keep moving on a "more preferential basis" and could be left aside even if either country imposes new tariffs . That goes a step beyond this week's extension of the trade truce into January 2027, agreed as President Trump hosted Xi Jinping in Washington, by building a buffer against the next round of escalation rather than simply pausing it.

The scope is also deliberately narrow. Greer said conversations about export controls and national security are off the table in these talks , which leaves semiconductor and advanced-technology restrictions, the issues most relevant to chipmakers such as NVDA, outside the package. The administration plans to release "a lot more details" on Monday about what has been accomplished over the past several weeks . Watch for the exact product categories, whether the carve-outs survive a future tariff escalation as described, and any signal on whether agricultural purchases carry volume commitments, which would matter for farm-exposed names and commodity prices.