UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — China, U.S. agree to $30 bn tariff cut, AI dialogue during Xi’s visit
Q1. The eight-point consensus reached during Xi Jinping's state visit to the United States in September 2026, which included a $30 billion reciprocal tariff-reduction arrangement, was formally announced by which one of the following?
- A. The Office of the United States Trade Representative
- B. The Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China
- C. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China
- D. The United States Department of the Treasury
Q2. In the context of China–U.S. relations in September 2026, the term 'eight-point consensus' refers to:
- A. a legally binding treaty that permanently eliminates all tariffs on goods traded between China and the U.S.
- B. a set of summit outcomes including a reciprocal tariff cut, a new trade council and a dialogue on AI
- C. an understanding confined exclusively to AI risks, with every trade issue deferred to a later summit
- D. an agreement that entirely replaces all outcomes of the earlier Kuala Lumpur round of trade talks
Q3. In the context of the U.S.–China trade dispute, the truce agreed at Geneva in May 2025 refers to:
- A. a 90-day arrangement lowering tariffs to about 30% on the U.S. side and 55% on the Chinese side
- B. a one-year arrangement agreed directly by Presidents Trump and Xi at their meeting in Busan
- C. a 90-day arrangement negotiated by the U.S. Commerce Secretary and China's Commerce Minister
- D. a 90-day arrangement lowering tariffs to about 55% on the U.S. side and 30% on the Chinese side
Q4. Consider the following pairs of U.S.–China negotiating rounds in 2025 and their outcome or setting:
1. Geneva (May 2025) : 90-day truce that sharply reduced tariffs on both sides
2. London and Stockholm : extension of the Geneva truce
3. Kuala Lumpur (October 2025) : talks held on the sidelines of the APEC Leaders' Meeting
4. Busan (Trump–Xi meeting) : one-year trade truce with Chinese easing of export restrictions
Which of the pairs given above is/are NOT correctly matched?
- Geneva (May 2025) : 90-day truce that sharply reduced tariffs on both sides
- London and Stockholm : extension of the Geneva truce
- Kuala Lumpur (October 2025) : talks held on the sidelines of the APEC Leaders' Meeting
- Busan (Trump–Xi meeting) : one-year trade truce with Chinese easing of export restrictions
- A. 3 only
- B. 1 and 3
- C. 2 and 4
- D. 4 only
Q5. Members of the WTO Appellate Body, a body without any sitting member since the last term expired in November 2020, are appointed by which one of the following?
- A. The WTO Ministerial Conference, meeting in its biennial session
- B. The Dispute Settlement Body of the WTO
- C. The WTO Director-General on the Secretariat's recommendation
- D. The WTO Council for Trade in Goods under the General Council
Q6. Which one of the following statements regarding the India AI Impact Summit 2026 and its outcome document is correct?
- A. Its declaration was adopted unanimously by all UN member states as a General Assembly resolution.
- B. It was organised exclusively by the Ministry of External Affairs, with no role for any other ministry.
- C. Its declaration was endorsed by 92 countries and international organisations.
- D. Its declaration binds every signatory to cap all frontier AI compute within its territory.
Q7. Under which one of the following does India's IndiaAI Mission, which provisioned more than 38,000 GPUs as sovereign compute capacity, function as the nodal body giving overall policy direction?
- A. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
- B. Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology
- C. NITI Aayog, through its Frontier Technologies Hub
- D. Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications
Q8. Under China's commitments following the Trump–Xi Busan meeting, the 'general licences' for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite refer to:
- A. authorisations issued under the Wassenaar Arrangement's dual-use list for exports to member states
- B. U.S. Commerce Department licences allowing chip exports to firms placed on the Entity List
- C. case-by-case permits required separately for every individual export contract to a U.S. buyer
- D. licences valid for exports benefiting U.S. end users and their suppliers around the world
Q9. Consider the following statements comparing the trade-related commitments made after the Trump–Xi Busan meeting:
1. China suspended the export restrictions it had introduced on 9 October 2025 on rare earth and lithium battery materials.
2. Gallium and germanium are used in semiconductors and fibre optics, and China accounts for roughly 98 per cent of global primary germanium supply.
3. The U.S. pledged to reduce the 'fentanyl-linked' tariff, while China agreed to relax curbs on gallium, germanium and other strategic minerals.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- China suspended the export restrictions it had introduced on 9 October 2025 on rare earth and lithium battery materials.
- Gallium and germanium are used in semiconductors and fibre optics, and China accounts for roughly 98 per cent of global primary germanium supply.
- The U.S. pledged to reduce the 'fentanyl-linked' tariff, while China agreed to relax curbs on gallium, germanium and other strategic minerals.
- A. 1 only
- B. 1 and 3 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q10. Following the ASEAN summit hosted by Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in October 2025, on whose sidelines U.S.–China trade talks were also held, how many full member states did ASEAN have?