China’s purchases of US agricultural products not linked to resumption of trade talks, ministry says

Chinese companies have expressed interest in buying significant quantities, and have applied for exemptions from the tariffs imposed by Beijing

Trade representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are set to meet Vice-Premier Liu He in Shanghai on Tuesday and Wednesday next week

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In the first six months of the marketing year, between October 2018 and March 2019, China bought just 2.7 million metric tonnes of US soybeans, around a tenth of the 24.4 million metric tonnes during the same period the previous year. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:29pm, 25 Jul 2019Updated: 8:42pm, 25 Jul 2019

China’s purchases of agricultural products from the United States have “no direct link” to the agreement to resume face-to-face trade talks next week in Shanghai, but rather reflects commercial decisions by individual Chinese buyers, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

Spokesman Gao Feng confirmed next week’s talks will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday in China’s financial hub rather than the capital city of Beijing after the White House earlier announced US trade representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven will lead the American team for first face-to-face talks since May.

Next week’s 12th round of face-to-face talks in the year-long trade war follow the meeting between President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Japan at the end of June.

“The purchases are the companies’ own decisions, in accordance with market conditions,” Gao said. “Restarting the trade negotiations was an important consensus reached by the heads of China and the US during the meeting in Osaka [and] has no direct link with the commercial purchases.”

Restarting the trade negotiations was an important consensus reached by the heads of China and the US during the meeting in Osaka [and] has no direct link with the commercial purchases

Gao Feng

Several Chinese companies have recently expressed interest in buying significant quantities of American agricultural products and have applied for exemptions from the tariffs imposed on such imports by Beijing, according to a report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency on Sunday.