China Signals Farm Trade Thaw After Trump-Xi Beijing Summit
China’s commerce ministry signaled Saturday that Beijing and Washington have agreed to expand agricultural trade through reciprocal tariff reductions, CNBC reported. The announcement followed President Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing this week for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Farm Trade Deal Takes Shape After Summit
The ministry described the agreements as preliminary, with final terms expected to be locked in shortly. Both governments said they intend to promote two-way trade, including farm products, through mutual levy reductions across a broader basket of goods. No specific commodities were identified in the official statement.
Market analysts are focused on soybeans. A widely anticipated 10% tariff reduction on the crop could allow private Chinese crushers to return to the US market. Those buyers sat largely on the sidelines during last year’s American harvest, leaving state-owned traders as the only active purchasers.
Johnny Xiang, founder of Beijing-based AgRadar Consulting, told CNBC that farm tariff relief would effectively normalize China-US agricultural commerce, reopening the door for commercial buyers who had been priced out.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Washington expects China to purchase double-digit billions of dollars worth of American farm goods over the next three years, though neither side has published specific volumes or values.
A Trade Relationship That Hit a Wall
The backdrop is stark. US agricultural exports to China collapsed 65.7% year-on-year to just $8.4 billion in 2025, according to US Department of Agriculture figures. That decline followed successive rounds of retaliatory tariffs that effectively shut large swaths of American farm produce out of the Chinese market.
China still applies an additional 10% levy on US farm imports, a remnant of last year’s escalating trade conflict.
Beef Plants and Poultry Access Also Advanced
Beyond tariffs, both sides agreed to make meaningful progress on non-tariff obstacles. China said it would address long-standing US concerns around beef processing facility registrations and poultry export rules tied to specific American states.
On Friday, Beijing granted five-year registration extensions to 425 US beef facilities whose approvals had lapsed, and issued fresh five-year licenses to a further 77 plants. The move reopened a significant channel that had been effectively closed.
China had previously resumed purchases of some US farm goods following bilateral talks in October, including soybean commitments, wheat cargoes, and large volumes of sorghum.
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