China again flags tariff cuts for US agricultural trade after Trump-Xi meeting, but still no details
Written by: Ella Cao, Daphne Zhang and Lewis Jackson
BEIJING, May 20 (Reuters) – China and the United States have agreed to reduce customs duties on agricultural trade as part of a broader trade agreement, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday, leaving many questions about the practice unanswered.
U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met in Beijing last week, where the White House said China agreed to buy $17 billion worth of U.S. agriculture annually, on top of its existing multibillion-dollar commitment of soybeans.
The commitment would boost China’s imports of U.S. agriculture to all-time highs, but meeting it would likely require Beijing to lower tariffs it imposed during the trade war.
Both parties “agreed in principle to include relevant issues” [agricultural] In a statement largely echoing the statement made on Saturday, the Department of Commerce said:
The statement did not mention which products might be included or the $17 billion commitment.
Readings in China tend to be more cautious than those in Washington. Beijing bought 12 million tonnes of soybeans late last year as part of a deal agreed at an October summit, but has never publicly acknowledged that commitment.
The statement also referred to the trade board that will be established to select and inspect $30 billion worth of goods on which tariffs will be reduced to historic levels or lower.
“We think the Chinese side will focus these discounts on US agricultural products,” said Trivium China director Even Rogers Pay.
“The $17 billion purchase agreement and the 25 million metric tons of soybean deal would total roughly just over $30 billion.”
The statement also said that, as Reuters reported last week, China has recertified the registrations of US beef companies and will resume poultry exports from some US states where bird flu outbreaks have occurred.
China also said it would discuss agricultural biotechnology issues of interest to Washington, without going into detail.
(Reporting by Ella Cao, Daphne Zhang and Lewis Jackson in Beijing; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
