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Resources Minister Madeleine King has welcomed positive talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping and the resolution of trade tensions over rare earths following the signing of a rare earths agreement between Australia and the US last week.

“It’s good news that two leaders of the world’s two leading economies have come together, had a productive meeting and reached some concessions on export bans on rare earths and critical minerals, and I think that will be good for Australia any time soon,” King told ABC Radio National this morning.

“There is more open and free trade, and we welcome that. Of course we support it. But what we know is that the enforcement of these export restrictions is arbitrary in nature, and likewise their removal is arbitrary based on a single meeting,” he said.

China controls about 70 percent of the global trade in rare earths, which are used to make products from mobile phones to airplanes. Amid an escalating trade war with the United States, China announced export controls on rare earths earlier this month.

The changing landscape has opened the door to a US$3 billion ($4.58 billion) deal to expand rare earths trade between the US and Australia, signed when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with Trump last week. However, after the meeting between Xi and Trump yesterday, export controls were postponed for a year.

Despite the thaw, King said: “It’s still up to us to make sure that we develop a separate supply chain and we’ve been working on that for some time, knowing that this is a vulnerability in the system.”