The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that private exporters reported selling 581,000 tons of U.S. soybeans to China.
Two traders with direct knowledge of the deals told Reuters that Chinese importers purchased about 600,000 tons of U.S. soybeans last week after holding trade negotiations at the Deputy ministerial level in Washington.
The traders said the soybeans were originally scheduled to be exported from the Pacific Northwest Terminals from October to December. These purchases are comparable in size to a wave of exports to China reported earlier this month.
This is one of the largest orders made by Chinese private importers since July 2018, when the Chinese government increased the import tariff of US soybeans by 25% in retaliation for the US tariff on Chinese goods. Almost all other soybean purchases in the past year have been made by Chinese state-owned enterprises, which do not have to pay high import tariffs.
China has offered new exemptions to several importers of U.S. soybeans, allowing them to buy U.S. soybeans without retaliatory tariffs, two people familiar with the matter said Tuesday. This is a friendly gesture before the high-level trade talks between China and the United States next month. One of the sources said that the exemptions were provided in two batches, totalling about 5-6 million tons.
In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, President Trump sharply criticized Beijing's trade practices, saying he would not accept a "bad agreement" with China on trade issues.
On Tuesday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi responded to criticism of the United States by saying that China had no intention of "playing a game of power on the international stage" while respecting the interests of the United States, but did not accept threats in trade negotiations or allow interference in domestic affairs, including Hong Kong.
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