WASHINGTON, D.C. (RFD-TV) — U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer now says the scope of the trade agreement under discussion with China may need to be narrower. One trader told RFD-TV News that signals have been mixed in recent weeks, warning that it adds to the overall confusion in the markets.
“[U.S. Secretary of the Treasury] Scott Bessent had said that they weren’t going to buy their products by the end of December,” explained Brian Hoops, President of Midwest Market Solutions. “They had pushed it back into February. We thought that was an odd comment. And these comments now […] saying that there is not a trade agreement — I think, really, leaves the trade confused and uncertain about this market. And markets don’t like uncertainty. They don’t like the unknown. And so, this could be a little bearish to the market.”
Greer, in recent months, has opened an investigation into China and its trade commitments under the Phase One agreement signed with the first Trump Administration. The White House now says the Biden Administration did not hold China accountable while Trump was out of office.
American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall told RFD-TV News that the Chinese market is critical and warned that farmers need to be able to compete on a global stage.
“China is the third-largest buyer of American-grown food products, behind Mexico and Canada,” said Duvall. “Unfortunately, China has fallen short of its obligations. Farm Bureau is sending that message to the U.S. Trade Representative to emphasize the toll trade disputes, tariffs, and unfulfilled promises take on America’s farmers and ranchers. Farmers deserve a level playing field when it comes to trade.”
China still has a long way to go before meeting its export commitment for this year, set at 12 million metric tons. Moving forward, the expectation is that China will buy 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans each year for the next three years.
AFBF says it supports a thorough review of the U.S.-China trade relationship as the U.S. Trade Rep’s Office moves to investigate potentially unfair trading practices by China. However, AFBF Senior Director of Government Affairs, Dave Salmonsen, noted that there has been recent progress between the two countries.
“President Trump and President Xi of China came to a deal back on October 31, for one year, going to delay any new tariffs,” Salmonsen said. “They reduce some tariffs by about percent, several purchase commitments by China for U.S. ag products, and those port fees, which had gone into effect fairly recently, were delayed a year.”
AFBF said it recently submitted comments to the Office of the Trade Representative encouraging further discussion of previous agreements with China. Salmonsen said there have been some positive developments in recent weeks, including China’s multi-year commitment to purchase U.S. soybeans and some smaller buys of sorghum.
“Which means, they look into the issue, they gather information, and — at the end of the day — they could decide we can use this when we’re having continuing negotiations,” Salmonsen explained. “We pointed out that China did not fulfill that Phase One agreement that was signed in 2020. They didn’t remove all the non-tariff trade barriers. We let them know that those were things that needed to continue to be worked on.”
According to U.S. trade officials, China committed to purchasing 25 million metric tons of soybeans per year for the next three years. So far, they have only booked about 12 million.
