Beijing officials said Thursday the U.S. should remove “unreasonable” tariffs as a condition for China to resume its critical purchase of American soybeans.
Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong laid out the terms, as U.S. soybean growers face huge financial losses from the lack of Chinese purchases.
“The United States should take positive action to cancel the relevant unreasonable tariffs to create conditions for expanding bilateral trade,” Mr. He said.
Mr. He’s comments followed a meeting between Chinese trade officials and Midwest business leaders that had raised hopes for a thaw in relations and critical purchases from China.
Midwest soybean farmers rely on China, the world’s second-largest economy, to make substantial purchases from their harvest.
Yet China has refused to buy American soybeans amid tit-for-tat tariffs with the U.S.
Instead, China has turned to Brazil for a large portion of its soybeans, and recently added purchases from Argentina.
Trade tensions earlier this year resulted in a series of high-level meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials.
The U.S. is imposing a general rate of 30% on Chinese goods. American products face a 10% tariff when they enter Chinese markets.
Soybean growers said their products face a 20% retaliatory tariff from China.
While the nations try to strike a broad trade deal, soybean growers are losing patience.
“The frustration is overwhelming. U.S. soybean prices are falling, harvest is underway, and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. government is extending $20 billion in economic support to Argentina while that country drops its soybean export taxes to sell 20 shiploads of Argentine soybeans to China in just two days,” American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland said earlier this week.
The soybean situation reflects broader concerns among American farmers about economic stress from high input costs for equipment and fertilizer. Simultaneously, they are confronting low crop prices.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says the administration is considering new aid for farmers, including a potential package that uses tariff revenue to assist crop growers.
“We’re looking at our soybean, corn, wheat, sorghum, cotton farmers who are facing very, very difficult times. We are currently in conversations here at the White House, across the government, on a farmer aid package,” Ms. Rollins said at the White House on Wednesday.
She said farmers are being assisted under an existing payment system, but there could be something “in addition to that.”
“We should have an announcement very soon, perhaps in the next couple of weeks,” she said.
Farmers say they’d rather obtain new markets than another bailout from Washington.
Corn growers want to be able to sell high-ethanol fuel year-round instead of relying on waivers to sell 15% ethanol fuel in the summertime.
Farmers, generally, are pressing the administration to secure trade deals like the ones with the U.K. and Japan that call for bigger purchases of American farm products.
Mr. Ragland said soybean growers “cannot wait and hope any longer.”
“ASA is calling on President Trump and his negotiating team to prioritize securing an immediate deal on soybeans with China,” he said. “The farm economy is suffering while our competitors supplant the United States in the biggest soybean import market in the world.”
