U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a flurry of trade deals during his first day in Asia, looking to shore up access to critical minerals and a market for U.S. agricultural goods ahead of a critical meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“My message to the nations of Southeast Asia is that the United States is with you 100% and we intend to be a strong partner and friend for many generations to come,” Trump said at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

The U.S. president dangled exemptions from his reciprocal tariff regime on key exports from Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia as part of the agreements. He also expressed optimism during a meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that they could easily strike a trade agreement, as the Latin American country seeks to reduce the 50% tariff on many of its goods.

The White House’s hope is that the framework trade pacts — set to be enacted in the coming weeks — can bolster Trump’s hand before he sits down with Xi later this week in South Korea. Ahead of that summit, Beijing has cut off soybean purchases and announced new restrictions on critical mineral exports, earning Trump’s ire and threatening to roil the U.S. economy.

Still, the scant details offered in many of the framework agreements made it difficult to gauge their ultimate impact. While countries agreed to roll back tariffs and regulations on the purchase of U.S. goods, negotiations will continue on what relief they will receive — and whether key sectors like apparel and electronics earn a break.

“It’s a step in the right direction but there’s still considerable uncertainty out there,” said Peter Mumford, who covers Southeast Asia at risk consultancy Eurasia Group, citing questions on the rules of origin for reciprocal agreements, sectoral tariffs and transshipment levies. “And none of these are legally binding agreements too. They’re all quite flexible agreements.”

Southeast Asia is now a larger source of goods for the U.S. than China, underscoring the potential importance of the deals signed on Sunday. That’s particularly true for Vietnam, which is rising quickly as a top exporter to the U.S.

The pact with Cambodia affirms the country will drop all its tariffs on U.S. food and agricultural imports as well as industrial products. In exchange, the White House identified hundreds of goods it planned to exempt from the 19% tariff Trump has imposed on Cambodian goods.

While Cambodia is “pleased” with the agreement, the nation also hopes the U.S. will lower the rates for garment, footwear and travel goods, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol said in a text message. The garment industry makes up more than half of Cambodia’s exports.

“We wish to thank President Trump for granting us the reciprocal rate that allows us the ability to compete and expand our trade and investment,” Sun Chanthol added.

Trump announced the agreement at a ceremony with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who signed a document formalizing a ceasefire reached after a five-day border clash earlier this year. Hun Manet said he was nominating Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to help broker the end of hostilities.

The White House also reached an agreement with Thailand that will eliminate tariff barriers on 99% of U.S. goods, including the full range on industrial, food and agricultural products. The U.S. will soon identify a set of Thai goods it plans to exempt from reciprocal tariffs. Like Cambodia, exports from Thailand currently face a 19% rate.

The two countries also signed a critical minerals pact that should offer U.S. companies preferential access to rare earths, crucial minerals used to produce high-tech products including semiconductors and jet engines. Still, the memorandum of understanding was light on details, leaving questions about what impact it can have in a rare earths sector where China controls 70% of the market.

“Absent specific commitments, the deal’s impact may not outlast the summit,” said Adam Farrar, a geo-economics analyst at Bloomberg Economics.

In addition to the Thailand and Cambodia deals, Trump announced pacts with host-nation Malaysia and Vietnam, one of the U.S.’s biggest trading partners in the region, that offers preferential access for U.S. goods and agricultural exports. Like the other deals, the White House has promised to identify exemptions from Trump’s 19% reciprocal tariffs on Malaysian goods and 20% levy on Vietnamese products.

Trump also inked a deal with Malaysia on critical minerals, which could prove the most valuable of the pacts. Malaysia is seeking to expand its refinement of rare earths and has sought partnerships with both Beijing and Washington to expand capacity.

While the U.S. president framed the agreements as an outstretched hand to the region, the push comes as he’s been squeezed by Beijing ahead of his meeting with Xi.

China imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. farm goods in March, effectively slamming the door shut on American soybeans before the harvest even began. The Asian nation last year purchased $13 billion of U.S. beans — more than 20% of the entire crop — for animal feed and cooking oil, and the freeze has rocked rural farmers who represent a key political base for the president.

Rare earths

Trump’s political woes only deepened in recent weeks as China signed a letter of intent to buy $900 million in soybeans, corn and vegetable oil from Argentina, just as the U.S. leader offered the South American government a $40 billion lifeline.

The U.S. has also been locked in a rare-earths tussle with China, which fought back against Trump’s trade offensive earlier this year by cutting off supplies of the materials. Although flows were restored in a truce that saw tariffs lowered, China this month broadened export curbs on the materials after the U.S. expanded restrictions on Chinese companies.

The prospect of even tighter supply of rare earths has injected momentum into the U.S. push to build alternative production and processing capacity, with Trump narrowing in on a similar critical minerals agreement with Japan in the coming days. Earlier this month, he signed an agreement with Australia for expanded output that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese valued at $8.5 billion.

Still, it’s not clear the deals will significantly alter U.S. trade, particularly on a scale that would offset any negotiation with China that went sideways. That’s particularly true with Trump threatening to again hike tariffs on one of his biggest trading partners — Canada — over frustration with a television ad questioning his tariff policies.

U.S. officials on Sunday expressed confidence that the talks with Xi could yield an agreement that would calm the ongoing trade war.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday morning that the two sides discussed agricultural purchases, TikTok, fentanyl, trade, rare earths and the overall bilateral relationship. He described the talks as “constructive, far-reaching and in-depth,” adding that they give the nations “the ability to move forward to set the stage for the leaders meeting in a very positive framework.”

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(With assistance from Philip J. Heijmans, James Mayger and Claire Jiao.)

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