Resources Minister Madeleine King has welcomed positive talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the thawing of trade tensions on rare earths following last week’s signing of a rare earths deal between Australia and the United States.

“It is good news that the two leaders of the world’s two leading economies have met, have had a productive meeting, and have reached some concessions around the export bans on rare earths and critical minerals, and I think at any moment it’s good for Australia,” King told ABC Radio National this morning.

“There is more open and free trade, and we welcome that. Of course we do. But what we know is the imposition of these export restrictions were arbitrary in nature, and equally, the lifting of them is also arbitrary, based on a single meeting,” she said.

China controls about 70 per cent of the global rare earths trade, minerals that are used to create products from mobile phones to aircraft. Amid an escalating trade war with the United States, China announced export controls on rare earths earlier this month.

The changing landscape opened the door for a $US3 billion ($4.58 billion) deal to expand rare earth trade between the US and Australia, which was signed when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met Trump last week. However, following yesterday’s meeting between Xi and Trump, export controls have been delayed for a year.

Regardless of tensions thawing, King said: “It still behooves us to make sure we do develop a separate supply chain, and I note we’ve been working on this for some time, knowing that that is the vulnerability in the system”.