ALBERTA, CANADA (RFD-TV) — Reactions continue to pour in following President Trump’s announcement that the U.S. has reached a new trade deal with China after several days of meetings overseas. The agreement, administration officials say, will ensure U.S. soybean exports to China continue for at least the next three years.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News this morning that China has agreed to purchase 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans this season and maintain imports of 25 million tons per year over the following 36 months — calling that figure a baseline, not a ceiling. Bessent also confirmed that the U.S. will cut tariffs on fentanyl trafficking — down from 20 percent to 10 percent — while Chinese officials work on parallel measures.
Additionally, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced plans to postpone new port fees on Chinese-made and operated ships. In response, Chinese state media reports that Beijing will pause its own retaliatory port fees as both countries continue working toward a longer-term trade solution.
For insight from north of the border, Shaun Haney, host of RealAg Radio on Rural Radio SiriusXM Channel 147, joined us on Thursday’s Market Day Report to share his perspective on how the U.S.-China trade developments could impact North American agriculture and market stability moving forward.
“I think overall with the reduction in trade tensions, this should be viewed as a positive,” Haney said. “There’s a lot of focus on the soybean component of this from an agricultural standpoint – and that is also good. But there are also crops like, for example, sorghum or cotton, that would definitely like to see a bit of an uptrend when it comes to exports to the size of the purchaser, like China.”
He said, while it is a relief that China is returning to near-normal grain purchases from the U.S., it is merely a return and not an expansion of trade that would help growers in other sectors.
“The Chinese are essentially signaling here they’ll return to something close to more normal purchasing, potentially, not necessarily expanding their buying beyond some of the historic levels. That’s a little bit of the more cautionary side to this. I think, based on the fact that China has yet to buy any beans outside of those three ships we heard about yesterday, just getting this started will be seen as a bit of a positive. But I think the market overall is going to want to see some follow-through and not just talk coming from the two leaders.”
In terms of President Trump’s comments after the meeting, telling farmers to go out and buy " more land and bigger tractors,” Haney says, those remarks do not reflect the stark reality for many farmers or ranchers as they look at overall profitability and their ability to pay bills in the short term.
“This is vintage President Trump. Big promises, even bigger expectations. The reality is, I would not go to your banker today and say, ‘Hey, President Trump says I need to buy some more land and so, you know, give me some more money.’ There’s a lot of hurt right now in Farm Country. Although if the Chinese do follow through on buying more ag commodities or getting back to a more normal sort of environment, that is going to be good for farm revenues and for the overall market, indeed. But it does not extinguish right away here in any sort of sense the real profitability concerns and people’s ability to pay bills and get to the other side of this in the very short term. This is where the skepticism kind of builds. In the last couple of weeks, actually, we’ve also seen President Trump say that ranchers are potentially making too much money, so it’s kind of a bit of a double-take. The reality is, President Trump is pretty happy with the meeting, calling it a “12 out of a 10.”
Moving forward, he recommends people approach the situation with both optimism and caution, as details of the trade agreement are ironed out.
“I think the reality is this is a deal or an agreement that is still in flux,” Haney said. “There’s still a lot of stuff to be ironed out, and there still is real tension here between the two largest economies in the world. I think it is a reality that is a renewable, one-year agreement. Listen, two weeks from now, we could be talking about how things have gone astray — that’s kind of what we’re dealing with this administration. So, the overall market and farmers have to view this as a moment in time. It is a positive, but it doesn’t necessarily create the long-term stability and assurance, from an export perspective, that a lot of people are searching for, but it is a step forward in a positive direction.”
