Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that under the terms of a new U.S.-China trade deal, Beijing has pledged to continue buying soybeans in similar volumes to recent years. Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins touted tariff reductions on U.S. commodities and opportunities for sorghum and hardwood.
Agri-Pulse reports that just hours after President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, Bessent said China had committed to buying 12 million metric tons of soybeans this season, which Bessent said would end in January, and to keep import volumes to at least 25 million tons per year for the next three years. China bought around 26 million tons of soybeans in both 2023 and 2024, according to USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.
A White House official told Agri-Pulse that the 12 million-ton target refers to "the 2025 growing season," while the 25 million-ton figures are for 2026, 2027, and 2028. Bessent said that “the massive amount of agriculture purchases” are a central component of the deal. The treasury secretary also stressed that the 26 million tons is a floor, not a ceiling.
Bessent noted that China is just one of the export destinations the administration has been working on to protect and expand U.S. soybean exports. He touted recent agreements that the U.S. has signed with Southeast Asian Nations and others that, he argued, could be worth another 19 million tons in soybean purchases. “Our great soybean farmers, who the Chinese used as political pawns,” Bessent said, “should prosper in the years to come.” Negotiations on the deal, Bessent said, concluded overnight. Accordingly, he said that both parties could sign the deal as soon as next week.
Secretary Rollins said in a social media post that China would buy U.S. sorghum and hardwood under the deal, as well as remove tariffs on a slate of commodities, including soybeans, sorghum, beef and corn. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Agri-Pulse that the sorghum sales could be worth around $2 billion annually. "That's huge news, especially for Kansas," Marshall said, adding that his state accounts for around half of total U.S. sorghum production. "This is going to save some farms," he added.
U.S. soybean growers also applauded the administration's work to restore Chinese purchases.