China delegation’s cancelled US farm states visit ‘nothing to do’ with trade war talks, minister says
- Vice-agriculture minister Han Jun said the planned visit to US farms in Montana and Nebraska was never confirmed and not due to failure in trade talks
- Han says the cancellation of the visit was due to an adjustment in the delegation’s itinerary unrelated to trade negotiations
The cancellation of a Chinese trade delegation’s trip to American farm states, news of which roiled US markets, was not down to any failure in trade talks, according to a senior member of the delegation.
Han Jun, a vice-minister at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, was quoted by China Business News, a state-owned media outlet, as saying “the change in the plan had nothing to do with the trade negotiations, as the trip was a stand-alone arrangement”.
The planned trip to farms in Montana and Nebraska will be rescheduled at a later date, Han said, pending an invitation by the United States. Han, also a deputy director at the Office for Central Leading Group on Rural Affairs, added that the trip had never been confirmed.
“We indeed had discussed with the US side about relevant arrangements, but the schedule was never finalised, due to various considerations, for now we haven't scheduled a trip to US farming states,” Han was quoted as saying.
Concerns that the talks had hit another wall were reinforced by comments from US President Donald Trump, who called China a “threat to the world” and ruled out the possibility of a “partial deal” with China. This put a dampener on hopes that the high-level Chinese delegation led by Vice-Premier Liu He, expected to travel to Washington for talks in October, would be able to seal a trade war truce.
Han, however, said that the agriculture portion of the talks were “very good” and the two sides had “sufficient and candid communications”. Without giving any detail, Han added that China is willing to expand agricultural trade and cooperation with the US.
Han’s role in the preliminary negotiations, as a key decision maker in China’s agricultural policy, is significant, given that any deal would likely involve China purchasing large portions of US farm goods, including pork and soybeans. He had previously warned that US farmers could lose their Chinese market share permanently should the trade war continue.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday that the two sides had conducted “constructive discussions” and had seriously discussed the specific arrangements of the senior level talks in October.
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) in Washington issued a statement saying the discussions were “productive” and the US “looks forward to welcoming a delegation from China for principal-level meetings in October”.
However, specific details of talks in October were forthcoming from neither side, nor did either side reveal any specific areas of progress made during the talks.
Chinese agriculture officials cancelled the trip not because of difficulties in trade talks, The New York Times reported over the weekend, citing two unidentified sources. One source was quoted by the newspaper as saying that the trip was cancelled out of concern that it would turn into a media circus and give the impression that China was trying to meddle in American domestic politics.
Bloomberg, meanwhile, reported that USTR Robert Lighthizer’s office did find out about the visit until after it was arranged and subsequently asked the Chinese delegation not to go, citing US domestic reasons.
