China agrees to boost trade for U.S. agricultural products following Trump-Xi summit

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective. First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming. Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day. Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary. The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features. Updated - May 18, 2026 02:12 pm IST - Washington File photo shows U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a summit meeting in Beijing. | Photo Credit: Reuters China has agreed to ramp up trade for U.S. agricultural products such as beef and poultry, buying at an annualised rate of $17 billion per year for 2026 and at that level for 2027 and 2028, the White House announced on Sunday (May 17, 2026). The announcement came two days after President Donald Trump returned from a high-stakes summit in Beijing where he sought to ease the impact on American farmers from the trade war he launched last year. China would restore market access for U.S. beef and resume imports of poultry from U.S. states determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be free of the bird flu, the White House said. The deals are on top of China's soybean purchase commitments last year. The agreements offer some hope to American farmers harmed by the trade war as they saw a major export market for soybeans and other products dry up. Farmers also are feeling new pressure from Trump administration policies — the war that the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran has curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade corridor that has restricted global fertiliser supplies and sent those prices soaring. There was no immediate confirmation of the terms from Beijing. China's Ministry of Commerce on Saturday (May 16, 2026) said the two sides would “resolve or make substantial progress toward resolving certain non-tariff barriers and market access issues" regarding agricultural goods. The U.S. would “actively work” to address China's concerns regarding detention of its dairy products, seafood, the export of potted bonsai, and the recognition of Shandong province as a bird-flu-free zone, while the Chinese side will “likewise actively work” to address U.S. concerns regarding the registration of beef processing facilities and the export of poultry meat from certain states to China, a ministry spokesperson said. The two sides also agreed to expand trade, including that of farm goods, through measures such as reciprocal tariff reductions on “a specific range of products,” though the spokesperson did not specify the products. China, recognising the link between food security and national security, has diversified its sources of imported soybeans, beef and other farm goods, turning increasingly to Brazil, Argentina and other countries over the U.S. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show China's imports of U.S. agricultural goods peaked in 2022 with $38 billion but fell to $8 billion in 2025. These figures include nearly $18 billion in soybean purchases in 2022 and $3 billion in 2025. It's not immediately clear how much more China would buy from American soybean farmers, who were hit especially hard in the trade war. China, traditionally the largest foreign buyer of American soybeans, stopped purchasing them altogether last year after Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese goods. The latest agreement builds on a trade truce Trump reached with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October in which China agreed to resume buying U.S. soybeans. The White House said then that China committed to buying 12 million metric tonnes in the current marketing year and 25 million metric tons for each of the next three years. According to the White House, hundreds of U.S. beef plants, including those run by Tyson and Cargill, also will be able to export again to China, though it's not immediately clear how much beef American businesses will be selling to China. China let licenses for hundreds of U.S. beef plants expire last year, and the import value for 2025 fell to less than $500 million, according to USDA figures. China's purchases of U.S. beef had peaked at $2.14 billion in 2022, the government data shows. The U.S. export of poultry meats and products to China was $286 million in 2025, down from more than $1 billion in 2022. During the summit last week, Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi discussed ways to enhance economic cooperation, including expanding market a

China agrees to boost trade for U.S. agricultural products following Trump-Xi summit

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China agrees to boost trade for U.S. agricultural products following Trump-Xi summit

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