The New York Times Sui-Lee Wee reported: “The White House announced in May that China would buy at least $17 billion a year of U.S. farm goods through 2028, with the target prorated for 2026. Soybeans were not included: China had already vowed separately to step up purchases from American farmers.”
“Yet in the first seven months of 2026, China bought only $3.9 billion of U.S. agricultural products, excluding soybeans, according to the most recent USDA data,” Sui-Lee Wee reported. “The amount was only slightly more than during the same period last year, when sales were at a six-year low as the two countries imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on each other.“
“The sluggish pace of China’s purchases could become a point of contention when [President Donald] Trump and [Chinese President Xi Jinping] meet again at a summit this week,” Sui-Lee Wee reported. “During his first term, Trump accused Beijing of ‘letting us down’ by reneging on pledges to buy American agricultural products and called its failure to buy soybeans an ‘economically hostile’ act.
Bloomberg’s Hallie Gu and Erin Ailworth reported, “To fulfill the $17 billion commitment, China would have to raise U.S. purchases at the expense of its hard-won strategy of diversification, cutting supplies from countries like Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and Australia.“
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