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The U.S. is set to allow more Chinese students to study in the United States at American colleges, former President Donald Trump said Monday. The promise was made as Trump tried to reach an agreement with China to end a trade war, despite months of back and forth between the two countries.

Trump announced on the White House lawn to reporters on Monday. He was joined by several top officials and said he would allow hundreds of thousands of Chinese students to continue their education in the U.S. despite previously suggesting that he would deny visas to the students.

“We’re going to allow their students to come in. It’s very important, 600,000 students. It’s very important. But we’re going to get along with China,” Trump said. “We want them to come in. So, 600,000 students. Let’s open it up.”

The former president was speaking from the White House on Monday. He said he will take steps to keep academic exchange between the countries, despite threats to impose tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese exports.

The move to allow 600,000 Chinese students into the country comes as the U.S. and China both face massive tariffs. At one point, Washington had levied a 145 percent tariff on all Chinese imports. Beijing’s retaliatory measure included a 125 percent tariff on U.S. exports to China. The steep taxes could mean an economic war between the world’s two largest economies.

Despite negotiators in Geneva announcing an agreement in May to halt further tariff measures, the White House said last week it would consider imposing a 200 percent tariff on Chinese-made magnets. Magnets are a key element in a number of household and industrial electronic devices, including refrigerators and air conditioning units.

Trump has suggested that China has a monopoly on the magnets used to power the world. While magnets can be sourced from other countries, the U.S. could take years to start manufacturing on its own, the president said.

“I’d say within a year,” Trump said. “But China, intelligently, went and they sort of took a monopoly on the world’s magnets. They own it. We have none.”

The move by Trump comes after members of his administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, announced the potential to “aggressively revoke” visas for Chinese nationals last May. Rubio suggested the move would be for anyone affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party or those working in research sectors in the Chinese economy.

The suggestion had raised concerns within higher education circles that the nation was about to suffer the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars and some of the best students in the country. Universities and academic centers had also raised concerns that such a move could open doors to foreign students in other countries and take away from the education in the U.S.

Trump softened that line last month when he said that he was “always in favor of letting the students in.”

The U.S. currently has 270,000 students from China in American schools, universities, and centers. A move to 600,000 would double that number and bring in a huge amount of revenue to U.S. centers, as they have suffered a major decline in revenue from other international students. In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, universities and colleges across the U.S. suffered a huge blow when students from the Middle East and Europe either chose not to attend U.S. schools or were prevented from attending due to pandemic conditions.

The news comes ahead of a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday. Asked if he would be open to a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump answered, “I would like to meet him this year.” When pressed, Trump added that he was going to try to reach out to China despite a current trade and economic war. The ex-president added that “there is no reason we can’t have a great relationship.”

“This is a very important meeting with the president of China coming up,” Trump said. “But as you know, we’re taking a lot of money in from China because of the tariffs and the different things. It’s a very important relationship. We have a much better relationship now economically than we did under Biden, by the way. But he allowed that. They just took him to the cleaners.”

With his emphasis on visas, the ex-president has managed to show a great deal of aggression toward the Chinese on tariffs, but still let some in on educational fronts. The line from Trump would also show that his administration does not intend to back down when it comes to the potential that China can overtake the U.S. on an economic and industrial level.

The president also doubled down on his suggestion that China had a monopoly on magnets around the world. He has now turned his eyes on semiconductor chips and has called for an investigation into manufacturing and sourcing to ensure the U.S. does not get left behind.

“We’re going to have to produce the semiconductor chips. We don’t have them. We’re going to have to do it,” Trump said. “It’s insane what we’re buying from other countries.”