Trump says China’s Xi using soy as negotiation tactic ahead of talks

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By Tom Polansek and Trevor Hunnicutt

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that soybeans would be a major topic of discussion when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in four weeks.

“The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Chinese importers have not yet bought soybeans from the autumn U.S. harvest during the trade war between Washington and Beijing, costing U.S. farmers billions of dollars in lost sales.

Autumn is the prime marketing season for U.S. soybeans as farmers bring in fresh crops from their fields. However, China, the world’s top soybean importer, has turned to South America for supplies instead, pressuring U.S. soybean prices.

U.S. Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, a Republican, said he did not think there was a specific timeline for China to resume purchases of U.S. soy following a briefing on Tuesday with U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue.

“He didn’t indicate to me sales are imminent,” Hoeven said in an interview. “The discussion was more, we need to keep the pressure on until we get sales and in the meantime be supportive of our farmers.”

In his post, Trump repeated a promise to use proceeds from tariff revenues to help farmers.

Last month, Trump said he and Xi agreed during a call to meet face-to-face in South Korea to discuss a trade conflict that has kept the countries bitterly at odds. The two leaders are set to meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum during the last week of October in Gyeongju, South Korea.

Trump also said he would visit China early next year and that Xi would come to the U.S. at a later date.

Efforts by the countries to lower trade tensions have led to expectations that China could direct more agriculture purchases to the U.S. as part of a deal with Trump.

“Right now, they’re buying from South America and using that to try to put pressure on us in these trade negotiations,” Hoeven said.

In 2020, during Trump’s first term in office, he signed a trade deal with China that included promises to buy tens of billions of dollars in U.S. agricultural products while expanding U.S. access to Chinese agriculture markets.

China never met its agreed purchase targets under the deal, and it has sought to diversify its food sources.

“The essence of China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutual benefit and win-win,” said Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington. “As a matter of principle, we hope the U.S. side will work with China to implement the important common understandings reached by our heads of state in their phone call.”

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya, Jasper Ward, Trevor Hunnicutt and Tom Polansek; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Diane Craft and Jamie Freed)