China hints at US farm purchases to end trade deadlock

Chinese companies are looking to buy agricultural products from the US, potentially giving a boost to stalled trade talks between the two countries.

Some Chinese firms have approached US exporters about buying farm products, asking Beijing to lift tariffs on the products to facilitate the purchases, the Chinese government said. The customs tariff commission of the state council, China's cabinet, will evaluate the applications.

The absence of any new Chinese purchases of US agricultural products has emerged as a sticking point in trade relations. US President Donald Trump said after meeting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Osaka in late June that China had agreed to buy food and agricultural products from the US as part of a deal to restart trade talks.

But no such purchases have yet taken place, more than three weeks after that deal was reached. "What they did was not appropriate. They are supposed to be buying farm products," Trump said last week.

It is unclear whether China's planned purchases of US farm products will be sufficient to reinvigorate the trade talks. Chinese firms are willing to continue importing agricultural products from the US that are marketable in China, and that meet the needs of Chinese consumers, state media said yesterday. This seems a far cry from Trump's comments last month that China will purchase a "tremendous amount" of agricultural products starting almost immediately, based on "lists of things that we would like them to buy".

China is still demanding the removal of all US tariffs as the price of any trade deal, while the US wants an agreement to address the "structural issues" that have resulted in its large trade deficit with China, and to include mechanisms guaranteeing Beijing will enforce any deal.

But tentative signs of progress have emerged in recent days, even before China's latest comments on agricultural purchases. US and Chinese negotiators held telephone talks last week, while China's state media yesterday noted the US has moved to exempt some industrial imports from additional tariffs. "China and the US are implementing the consensus reached by the two heads of state during the G20 Osaka summit," it said.