By Hallie Gu and Srinidhi Ragavendran
President Donald Trump said China will purchase “tremendous” amounts of American soybeans following a meeting to hammer out a wide-ranging trade deal with his counterpart Xi Jinping.
China will start buying immediately, Trump said in comments to reporters after talks with Xi in South Korea on Thursday. He did not provide any additional details. The Chinese commerce ministry said later that the two countries had agreed to expand agricultural trade, without making a specific reference to soybeans.
Soybeans in Chicago slid as much as 2.2% following the meeting, the biggest intraday decline in almost four months, as traders grappled with sparse detail provided after the talks. They later clawed back some losses. Futures rallied earlier in the week after U.S. Secretary Scott Bessent said he expected China to make “substantial” purchases of U.S. supplies.
“I expect choppy markets to continue until we see actual cargoes purchased,” said Joe Davis, a director at brokerage Futures International LLC. The market was looking for commitments to buy 5 million-to-10 million tons to be announced following the summit, he added.
China has held off buying U.S. soybeans for much of this season, hurting American farmers while giving Beijing a key bargaining chip during negotiations with Washington. Just days before the summit, Beijing made its first purchases of U.S. supplies in months — still a fraction of a soy trade that was worth more than $12 billion last year.
With a limited number of cargoes booked so far, the likelihood of a dramatic and rapid revival in U.S. purchases is shrinking, at least for commercial buyers. China has switched to taking more Brazilian soybeans and recently purchased record volumes from Argentina, part of its strategy to diversify supply.
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Commercial purchases would also require China to roll back tariffs on U.S. soybeans imposed earlier this year, a move that is widely expected by the market but which Beijing did not make explicit.
“Right now, we do not have a 100% clear answer on that,” said Even Pay, director at Beijing-based advisory firm Trivium China.
In March, China announced extra tariffs on a slew of U.S. agricultural products, including soybeans, in retaliation against additional punitive fentanyl-linked duties imposed by Washington.
In comments made after Thursday’s negotiations, Beijing said the U.S. would cancel the extra 10% levied on Chinese goods, adding that in response, it would adjust its corresponding countermeasures, without providing further detail.
When asked at a press briefing if China would cut duties on U.S. agriculture products, He Yongqian, spokesperson for China’s commerce ministry, did not directly address the question.
The U.S. president’s comments to reporters after talks in Seoul indicated that the leaders had largely formalized a framework agreement negotiated over the weekend in Malaysia. Trump described the meeting as “amazing.”
“President Xi authorized China to begin the purchase of massive amounts of Soybeans, Sorghum, and other Farm products,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
Nick Carracher, chief executive officer of Lachstock Consulting, said U.S. soybean growers would be looking to see more trades, given the extent of market share lost to South America. “A trade deal with only small purchases won’t support futures or turn around grower sentiment,” he said.
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