BEIJING: China has begun limited purchases of the United States’ farm products after the leaders of both countries met last week, but traders still await significant soybean buys after the White House said Beijing pledged to buy 12 million tonnes by year-end.
The top market for US farmers, China has turned its vast appetite for crops into a powerful trade war bargaining chip, largely avoiding US wheat and soybeans in favour of other supplies, after rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs.
Chinese buyers have booked two cargoes of US wheat, the first such purchases since October last year, two traders said on Thursday, while a sorghum shipment has been sent from the US to China, Reuters reported, citing a US industry official as saying.
China suspends retaliatory tariffs
The deals to import US agricultural goods come as Beijing confirmed on Wednesday that it suspended retaliatory tariffs on US imports, including duties on farm goods, although shipments of US soybeans still face a 13 per cent tariff.
The purchases of about 120,000 tonnes for December shipment include one cargo of US soft white wheat and one of spring wheat, the sources said.
“This is more of China showing commitment to buy US grains as US wheat is not the cheapest,” said a Singapore-based grains trader with direct knowledge of the wheat deals. “So it is more of [a] political move to buy these cargoes.”
On Thursday, Chinese state grains buyer COFCO held a soybean procurement signing ceremony during a major import fair in Shanghai, the head of a Chinese agriculture business association said, but no details were given.
Cheaper Brazilian soybeans
The White House has said China would buy at least 12 million tonnes of US soybeans in the last two months of 2025 and at least 25 million tonnes in each of the next three years, but Beijing has yet to confirm those figures.
China’s decision to leave intact a tariff of 13 percent on soybeans makes US shipments too expensive for commercial buyers compared to Brazilian cargoes, traders and analysts said.
Chinese importers recently bought 20 cargoes of cheaper Brazilian soybeans as South American prices eased on expectations that US sales would resume, while COFCO took three US cargoes ahead of the Trump-Xi meet.
