US Says China Is Meeting Trade Commitments
Officials Highlight Soybean Purchases and Ongoing Talks
Key Takeaways:
- U.S. trade officials said China is complying with recent bilateral trade commitments, including soybean purchase targets, and reaffirmed that monitoring remains ongoing.
- Officials said China has completed about one third of its soybean purchase commitment this season, with prices up 12% to 15% since the agreement, while several deal elements remain unfinished.
- US and Chinese economic leaders held a video call Friday to address trade concerns, and officials said discussions continue as the administration prepares to release its farm aid plan.
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Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said China has been complying with the terms of the bilateral trade agreements and that the U.S. is constantly monitoring commitments made by China in a bid to maintain a stable trade relationship.
“With China, it’s always we verify and we monitor and we watch the commitments. The commitments are quite specific,” Greer said Dec. 8 on Fox News’The Sunday Briefing. “So all of these things that we’ve agreed to with the Chinese recently are very concrete, we can monitor them with some ease, and so far, we’re seeing that they’re in compliance.”
Greer said China has gotten approximately “a third” of the way through its soybean purchase commitment for this growing season.
Bloomberg previouslyreportedthat after aseries of ordersplaced in late October — the first of this season — China’s purchases of American soybeans appeared to have stalled.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in late October agreed to extend a tariff truce, roll back export controls and reduce other trade barriers. But some elements of the deal — including the soybean purchases, sale of social media app TikTok and an increase in licenses to export critical rare earths from China — remain in progress.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Greer held a video call with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Dec. 5, according to China’s state-run news agency Xinhua, during which the officials had an “in-depth and constructive” discussion in which they vowed to keep stable ties and address “respective concerns” on trade and the economy, the outlet said.
Bessent on Sunday told CBS News’Face the Nationthat China will not speed up purchases, but they are still expected to take place this crop season and said soybean prices are up 12% to 15% since the agreement with China. He also said he divested from a soybean farm to comply with anethics agreement.
The Trump administration is expected to release its long-awaited farm aid plan this week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a cabinet meeting Dec. 2.
Asked whether chipmakers like Nvidia should give China advanced chips or if doing so would pose a security risk to the U.S., Greer expressed a need for the U.S. to be cautious.
“My own view is we need to be very cautious about this,” Greer said on Fox News. “We want companies’ bottom lines to do well, but as policymakers, we need to make sure that the national security is placed first and foremost, and that’s why you’ve heard President Trump talk about the types of chips that maybe would be restricted and there’s always an open discussion on where that threshold lies, and it changes over time.”
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