China again flags tariff cuts for US agricultural trade after Trump-Xi meeting, but still no details

By Ella Cao, Daphne Zhang and Lewis Jackson

BEIJING, May 20 (Reuters) – China and the U.S. have agreed to cut tariffs on agricultural trade as part of a broader trade deal, the ​Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday in a statement that ‌left several questions about implementation unanswered.

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, met in Beijing last week, where the White House said China agreed to buy $17 billion worth of U.S. agriculture annually on top of an existing multi-billion-dollar soybean ‌commitment.

The ​commitment would take Chinese imports of U.S. ⁠agriculture back towards all-time highs, ⁠but fulfilling it would likely require Beijing to drop its tariffs imposed during the trade war.

Both parties “in principle agreed to include relevant [agricultural] products in the reciprocal tariff reduction framework, while also setting guiding goals ​to expand two-way trade in agricultural products,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that largely echoed one made on Saturday.

The statement ⁠did not say what products could be ⁠included or mention the $17 billion commitment.

Chinese readouts tend to ​be more circumspect than those from Washington. Beijing bought 12 million tons ​of soybeans late last year as part of a deal ‌agreed upon at a summit in October, though it never acknowledged the commitment in public.

The statement also referenced the board of trade which will be set up to select and oversee $30 billion worth of goods where ⁠tariffs will be reduced to historic levels or lower.

“We think the Chinese side will focus those reductions on U.S. agricultural products,” said Even Rogers Pay, a ⁠director at Trivium China.

“The $17 ‌billion purchase agreement and 25 million metric tons ⁠soybean deal, together, would roughly total out to just ​over $30 ‌billion.”

The statement also said China had re-certified U.S. beef ​company registrations, ⁠as Reuters reported last week, and that it would resume poultry exports from some U.S. states where there had been avian influenza outbreaks.

China also said it would discuss agricultural biotechnology issues that were of concern to Washington, without elaborating.

(Reporting by Ella Cao, Daphne Zhang and Lewis Jackson in Beijing; Editing ​by Thomas Derpinghaus)