China renews, then halts licenses for hundreds of US beef exporters amid Trump-Xi summit

By Daphne Zhang, Lewis Jackson and Ella Cao

BEIJING, May 14 (Reuters) – Chinese customs appeared to have halted export clearances for hundreds of U.S. beef plants on Thursday, hours after Reuters reported the long-awaited licenses had been approved amid a summit between the U.S. and Chinese presidents in Beijing.

More than 400 U.S. beef plants lost export eligibility over the past year as Beijing’s permissions, granted between March 2020 and April 2021, lapsed without the customary renewal, accounting for roughly 65% of the once-registered facilities.

The renewal of the licenses would be a clear win for U.S. beef producers, after the White House said in recent weeks the issue would be raised at the summit.

Their registration status, which had been listed as “effective” earlier on Thursday, later reverted to “expired,” the customs website showed.

China’s General Administration of Customs was not reachable by phone and did not immediately respond to faxed questions from Reuters about why the change had been made.

A handful of Chinese beef company directors contacted by Reuters declined to comment, or be named, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

“One thing is certain: this matter is a card that China is playing in bilateral trade negotiations – it’s very effective for sending signals, while the actual risk remains completely manageable. That’s why we are seeing such dramatic shifts,” said Xu Hongzhi, a senior analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultants, adding he was unsure what prompted the shift.

During a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on both sides to expand cooperation in areas including trade and agriculture, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Cargill CEO Brian Sikes is among the U.S. CEOs accompanying Trump. Plants owned by Cargill and Tyson Foods were included when the renewals first appeared on the customs website.

A casualty of the trade war between Beijing and Washington, U.S. beef exports to China have fallen steadily to about $500 million last year from their peak of $1.7 billion in 2022.

(Reporting by Daphne Zhang, Ella Cao, and Lewis Jackson in Beijing; Editing by Kate Mayberry, Clarence Fernandez and Shri Navaratnam)