United States and China Agree to an Agreement on a Framework Agreement to Continue Negotiations to a Tariff Trade Agreement

Jun 11, 2025 10:19 AM EDT, Wed

U.S., China agree on framework to de-escalate trade tensions

Jun 11, 2025 #China #trade #tradewar The U.S. and China have agreed to a framework that negotiators say will de-escalate trade tensions between our two nations. Justin Wolfers and Bill Cohan join The 11th Hour to discuss.

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Transcript

Stephanie: You know what time it is? Money, power. Politics. We are following major news tonight that the united states and china have agreed to a framework to de-escalate trade tensions. Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed this news, saying rare earth experts are, quote, a fundamental part of that framework. So let’s discuss. I want to bring in my friend Bill Cohan, founding partner of Puck News and a former Wall Street banker, and Justin Wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy at University of Michigan. Professor Wolfers until now, it did not seem like the US and China were making much progress or any progress at all. How should we view this? Howard Lutnick is telling us de-escalation is underway. What do you think?

Justin: Well, the question is what’s actually different today than yesterday? And Howard Lutnick has not told me a single thing that’s different today than yesterday. The whole thing. It’s a I mean, there’s lots of verbiage. It’s wonderful. It’s fruitful. We’re doing amazing things. The whole thing is that at the end of the day, they may have agreed that they’re agreeing that the old agreement is still their agreement. Now they’re not actually agreeing on that. It’s on. The handshake agreement. And they said before they agree on the old agreement. That they have to go back and get the sign off from Trump and Xi. So at the end of this, they’ve negotiated a handshake agreement to seek sign off to agree that a previously agreed agreement was still there, agreed upon agreement. Now, that previous agreement, just to be clear, was not in fact an agreement, but was a framework for making future agreements.

Stephanie: Got it. Bill, do you agree?

Bill: Well, Justin said. It beautifully. I thought, Stephanie, what do I do with the framework? Stephanie, I mean, this is a president and an administration that loves chaos, thrives on chaos, for whatever reason to cover up all sorts of other things that it’s doing that doesn’t want us to know about. Whether it’s the riots in LA. That creates chaos. I think these this Liberation Day has created an unbelievable amount of chaos in financial markets. And, you know, just in decision making, in corporate boardrooms, in CEO suites, how if you’re Tim Cook, Stephanie, and you’re thinking about moving production to India, do you now reverse course and keep it in China, because we’ve got a framework for what might work and. How long does it take? And the tariffs going to be 145%. Are they going to be 30%? What are they going to be? Am I going to be able to get my rare earth. Metals that I need to make my phones? Am I going to be able to use workers in China to make my phones, or do I have to move to India? How do you make that decision with a framework?

I’m going to tell you you don’t. We also know that an appeals court has allowed Donald Trump’s tariffs to remain in effect for at least the next two months, until all oral arguments begin in late July. What do you think about that, Justin? Because that only furthers the argument that if you’re a big business, a small business, or you’re an investor, you’re still sitting on a bed of nails here.

Yeah. So the history here is really important. So let’s go back way back in history. The constitution says the power over tariffs belongs to congress. That’s history. The reciprocal tariffs, which are not reciprocal, were authorized. Under the emergency. Powers act, an act that does not include the word tariff. Plus, we’re. Not in an emergency, so the International Trade Court says, This doesn’t seem right. So they suspended them. So then the court said oh, we’ll hear it, the appeals court, but we’ll. Give it till june 9th. I need everyone to get their arguments in until then, we’ll we’ll stay proceedings. So then they decide, all right. Today’s june 10th. They’ve had a look. At everything and they’re like, oh. Yeah good idea. We’ll definitely. Take oral arguments. Now those start july 31st. And so we’re going to get 2 or 3 months of quite plausibly unconstitutional tariffs. The administration’s upset because they think it undermines their leverage. Of course it does. Using unconstitutional powers when you still have a constitution is actually not something you’re meant to do. And businesses. Are upset because what happens after all of this goes through. And so we’re going to have pointless, destructive tariffs that will probably unconstitutional all along. But the legal system is

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