On Thursday, for the second time this week, the White House called on China to buy U.S. farm exports, this time with President Trump saying that Beijing “is letting us down.” After meeting with President Xi Jinping nearly two weeks ago, Trump said China would begin “almost immediately” to buy large amounts of U.S. food and ag exports. So far, those purchases have not materialized.
Xi made no specific commitment on ag purchases, according to an unnamed source who was briefed on the meeting, reported the South China Morning Post. And a spokesman for China’s Commerce Ministry said last week that agricultural trade “is an important issue for both sides to discuss.”
“Beijing’s new-found reluctance to concede any ground on agriculture, widely seen as the easiest concession Beijing could make in getting a deal with Washington, reflects the Chinese government’s new approach to negotiating with Trump after the initial rounds of talks did not produce a trade deal,” said the newspaper.
Trump said on Twitter that “China is letting us down in that they have not been buying the agricultural products from our great Farmers that they said they would. Hopefully they will start soon!” On Tuesday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said China ought to buy US. soybeans and wheat as a sign of good faith while negotiations are under way to resolve the Sino-U.S. trade war.
Senior U.S. and Chinese officials spoke by telephone on Tuesday in their first conversation since Trump and Xi met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan at the end of June.
Before the trade war, China was the No. 1 customer for U.S. farm exports, with purchases running at $21 billion annually. After tit-for-tat tariffs, China is forecast to be the No. 5 buyer, at $6.5 billion, this fiscal year.