President Trump said the U.S. had signed a trade deal with China, while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the White House is close to agreements with several trading partners, ahead of the July 9 deadline.

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.

The United States and China reached a "framework" agreement on how to facilitate rare earth shipments, implementing a deal based on bilateral trade talks that started last month in Geneva, Switzerland,