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China agrees to buy 5 million tons of US soybeans a day after talks in Washington
[Washington Insider] China has agreed to resume purchases of U.S. soybeans following talks Thursday between President Trump and Beijing's top trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He. It will start purchasing 5 million metric tons a day, according to Trump."Five million tons of soybeans per day," Trump told reporters at a Oval Office meeting with Liu. "That's going to make our farmers very happy. That's a lot of soybeans." The administration had few other specific concessions to report following the meeting but claimed that it had made significant progress toward an eventual deal. China had cut back its purchases of soybeans back in July, with the number reaching zero in November, but restarted its purchases in December following a cooling-down of the trade war by both sides. Reuters reported that China ultimately purchased 23 million tons in 2018. The administration also announced that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will be traveling to China early next month to follow up on the talks. "We are more or less in continuous negotiations," Lighthizer said. "The secretary and I will be going over there shortly. At this point, it is impossible for me to predict success." In a statement, the administration said that "the negotiating sessions featured productive and technical discussions on how to resolve our differences." How to enforce ant eventual deal was a major topic, Trump and other officials said. Trump announced earlier in the day that he would meet one-on-one with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss trade policy later this year. The meeting would be the first between the leaders since early December, which resulted in a cooling-down of the current trade war. "No final deal will be made until my friend President Xi, and I, meet in the near future to discuss and agree on some of the long standing and more difficult points," Trump tweeted Thursday. Posted by: Besoeker 2019-02-01 |
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