US farm groups are urging Donald Trump to seek firmer Chinese crop-buying pledges and an end to Beijing’s 10% retaliatory tariff on US farm goods at this week’s summit with Xi Jinping. Analysts expect the sides to reaffirm existing purchase targets, not sign new deals.
China is on track to meet its Busan pledge to buy 25 million metric tons of US soybeans annually, analysts and traders say, but a separate commitment to import $17 billion a year in grains, meat and other farm goods is less certain. By September 10, the US Department of Agriculture had confirmed nearly 10 million metric tons of soybean sales to China from this year’s crop; traders believe at least half of another 6 million tons reported for undisclosed destinations were Chinese purchases.
China’s 10% tariff has made US soybeans less competitive than South American supplies; state-run importers returned this summer, but private Chinese buyers have stayed away. Farm groups also want to prevent port fees worth millions of dollars per call on Chinese-built or -operated ships from returning when their suspension expires in November. They seek an enforceable Chinese annual sorghum commitment of 5 million to 7 million metric tons, versus roughly 4 million to 5 million tons before the trade war, and want crops covered by a proposed US-China trade board.
