Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is to celebrate the reopening of the Chinese market to U.S. beef on Friday at the same time the Trump administration, according to a published report, is considering trade action against Beijing. The much-ballyhooed beef shipments are one of the few concrete results of the face-to-face meeting between the U.S. and Chinese presidents in April.
Perdue and the new U.S. ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, are scheduled to ceremonially cut a Nebraska prime rib at a Beijing hotel on Friday to mark the resumption of beef imports after a 13-year ban. The noontime event will punctuate a pair of meetings between Perdue and Chinese officials to discuss broader U.S. access to Chinese consumers, says the USDA. The first shipment of U.S. beef arrived on June 19, days after the nations agreed on the technical-level protocol for trade.
“President Trump is growing increasingly frustrated with China over its inaction on North Korea and bilateral trade issues,” reported Reuters. It cited three senior administration officials as saying Trump was looking at options that include tariffs on steel imports. As a candidate, Trump threatened to impose high duties on Chinese-made goods. The warm feelings of the April summit had fueled U.S. hopes for advances on trade and foreign policy.