China buys $67 million Worth of U.S. Soybeans as Trade War Eases

Ahead of working-level U.S.-Chinese trade talks this week, China bought $67 million worth of U.S. soybeans and said it would exempt American pork and soy from additional tariffs taking effect this month. President Trump said he would “rather get the whole deal done” but could be open to a mini-deal with China.

Both nations took conciliatory steps last week, with Trump delaying for two weeks, until Oct. 15, the imposition of additional tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing excluding a limited number of U.S. products, including pork and soybeans, from recently applied tariffs. Soybeans and pork would still face hefty import duties.

The USDA said on Friday that exporters reported the sale of 204,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to China. The sale was worth $67 million at current prices. There was chatter among traders that additional sales were being booked.

Working-level meetings this week between U.S. and Chinese officials would build toward ministerial meetings in October. When reporters asked if an interim deal with China, on intellectual property and agriculture, was under consideration, Trumpreplied, “Well, that’s something people talk about. I’d rather get the whole deal done … A lot of people are talking about it and I see a lot of analysts saying an interim deal, meaning we’ll do pieces of it — the easy ones first. But there’s no easy or hard. There’s a deal or there’s not a deal. But it’s something we would consider, I guess.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. agricultural attache in Beijing said the Chinese tariff commission was accepting applications through Oct. 18 to exclude agricultural and related U.S. products from additional tariffs. The process is similar to an initial round of applications that were taken earlier this year.