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Donald Trump had a phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, reported by the state-run Xinhua news agency, as trade tensions between the two largest global economies persisted.

The conversation took place a day after Trump characterized his Chinese counterpart as “extremely hard to make a deal with.” This exchange occurred during a week when both nations accused each other of not honoring a trade truce they agreed to in Geneva last month.

The two men were last known to have spoken to each other in January, before Trump’s second inauguration as president.

The agreement between the US and China temporarily lowered their reciprocal tariffs, which had risen to as high as 145 percent. Meanwhile, the US stated it would resume the import of essential rare earths and related magnets.

The US last week accused China of failing to live up to its promises to approve licences for exports of rare earths, leading to shortages that are threatening to shut down parts of US industry.

Beijing has accused the Washington of “seriously violating” of the Geneva agreement by issuing new warnings on using Huawei chips globally, halting sales of chip design software to Chinese companies and cancelling visas for Chinese students.

This is a developing story