Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack believes China is making good on promises it made as part of the landmark phase one trade deal it signed with the U.S. last year.
Vilsack said that the deal allows for market conditions to dictate how much Beijing is required to purchase from U.S. farmers. The Covid pandemic, he added, would qualify as a material market condition that would impact how much China has to buy.
„The good news is – China seems to be living up to its responsibilities,“ he said Wednesday. „The bad news is: At any point in time, because of the complex nature of the China-U.S. relationship, things can happen that might affect those purchases.“
After months of tense negotiation and a tit-for-tat tariff feud, China and the Trump administration struck a deal in January 2020 that Beijing would purchase an additional $200 billion in U.S. goods over two years. The additional purchases are supposed to be in addition to the quantity of goods and services Beijing bought from the U.S. in 2017.
Specifically, China agreed to purchase $12.5 billion worth of agricultural goods in 2020, followed by an additional $19.5 billion in 2021. The country’s purchases of U.S. soybeans and pork became of central importance during the bilateral talks throughout 2018 and 2019.
Still, some reports note that China hasn’t purchased the sums it promised before the Covid-19 pandemic, even if the rules of the trade deal allow for changes to the purchase amounts based market conditions.
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