Trump says China to buy more US farm products, offers no details
WASHINGTON - Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump on May 21 said China had pledged to buy “massive amounts” of American agricultural products but gave no other details about planned commitments from Beijing following U.S.-China trade talks last week.
“Fair Trade, plus, with China will happen!” Trump wrote in a series of posts on Twitter that came a day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said a trade war between the world’s largest economies was “on hold.”
“China has agreed to buy massive amounts of ADDITIONAL Farm/Agricultural Products - would be one of the best things to happen to our farmers in many years!” Trump wrote. “On China, Barriers and Tariffs to come down for first time,” he added.
Trump offered no specifics about what steps U.S. and Chinese officials had agreed to after talks on May 17-18 in Washington. The negotiations followed earlier meetings in Beijing aimed at diffusing the trade spat spurred by the Trump administration’s threat to slap tariffs on Chinese goods, and a counterproposal by China to levy U.S products.
Over the weekend, Beijing and Washington pledged to keep talking about how China could import more energy and agricultural commodities from the United States to narrow the $335 billion annual U.S. goods and services trade deficit with China.
