Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue this week again said China could triple its purchases of U.S. agricultural products. The U.S. and China are still hashing out the details of a trade agreement, now thought to conclude in June.
Perdue told Bloomberg Television this week “we could easily see, if we are able to come to a trade resolution, a doubling or tripling” of normal ag purchases by China over a period of two to five years.
China has averaged about $20 billion a year of U.S. ag purchases, before the trade war beginning last year. As part of the talks, China earlier proposed to buy an additional $30 billion of U.S. ag products. Additional massive purchases of U.S. farm products, particularly pork and soybeans which China has targeted in the trade war, would likely be a huge boon for the United States.
China began “good-faith” purchases of U.S. agricultural products as the trade talks began in December.