 "US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping (Photo: Reuters)")
US President Donald Trump has said that he will meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in four weeks and that the major topic of discussion between the two leaders will be soybeans.
“The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for ’negotiating’ reasons only, not buying,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Chinese importers have not yet purchased soybeans from the autumn US harvest during the trade war between Washington and Beijing, resulting in billions of dollars in lost sales for US farmers.
US-China soybean trade deal
The US has lost a big market in China for soybean products after Beijing turned to South America to fulfil its needs. Autumn is the prime marketing season for U.S. soybeans as farmers bring in fresh crops from their fields.
US Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, a Republican, said he did not think there was a specific timeline for China to resume purchases of US soy following a briefing on Tuesday with US Ambassador to China David Perdue.
“He didn’t indicate to me sales are imminent,” Hoeven said in an interview. “The discussion was more, we need to keep the pressure on until we get sales and in the meantime be supportive of our farmers.”
In 2020, during his first term, President Trump signed a trade agreement with China in which China committed to purchasing tens of billions of dollars’ worth of US agricultural products and to expanding access for US goods in its agrarian markets.
However, China has never met its targets under the deal as it seeks to diversify its food sources.
“The essence of China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutual benefit and win-win,” said Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington. “As a matter of principle, we hope the US side will work with China to implement the important common understandings reached by our heads of state in their phone call.”