China has agreed to ramp up trade for U.S. agricultural products such as beef and poultry, buying at an annualised rate of $17 billion per year for 2026 and at that level for 2027 and 2028, the White House announced on Sunday (May 17, 2026).

The announcement came two days after President Donald Trump returned from a high-stakes summit in Beijing where he sought to ease the impact on American farmers from the trade war he launched last year.

China would restore market access for U.S. beef and resume imports of poultry from U.S. states determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be free of the bird flu, the White House said. The deals are on top of China’s soybean purchase commitments last year.

The agreements offer some hope to American farmers harmed by the trade war as they saw a major export market for soybeans and other products dry up.

Farmers also are feeling new pressure from Trump administration policies — the war that the US and Israel launched against Iran has curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade corridor that has restricted global fertiliser supplies and sent those prices soaring.

There was no immediate confirmation of the terms from Beijing.

China’s Ministry of Commerce on Saturday (May 16, 2026) said the two sides would “resolve or make substantial progress toward resolving certain non-tariff barriers and market access issues” regarding agricultural goods.

The U.S. would “actively work” to address China’s concerns regarding detention of its dairy products, seafood, the export of potted bonsai, and the recognition of Shandong province as a bird-flu-free zone, while the Chinese side will “likewise actively work” to address US concerns regarding the registration of beef processing facilities and the export of poultry meat from certain states to China, a ministry spokesperson said.

The two sides also agreed to expand trade, including that of farm goods, through measures such as reciprocal tariff reductions on “a specific range of products,” though the spokesperson did not specify the products.

China, recognising the link between food security and national security, has diversified its sources of imported soybeans, beef and other farm goods, turning increasingly to Brazil, Argentina and other countries over the US.

China sharply cut back US imports during the trade war

Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show China’s imports of U.S. agricultural goods peaked in 2022 with $38 billion but fell to $8 billion in 2025. These figures include nearly $18 billion in soybean purchases in 2022 and $3 billion in 2025.

It’s not immediately clear how much more China would buy from American soybean farmers, who were hit especially hard in the trade war. China, traditionally the largest foreign buyer of American soybeans, stopped purchasing them altogether last year after Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese goods.

The latest agreement builds on a trade truce Trump reached with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October in which China agreed to resume buying U.S. soybeans.

The White House said then that China committed to buying 12 million metric tonnes in the current marketing year and 25 million metric tons for each of the next three years.

According to the White House, hundreds of US beef plants, including those run by Tyson and Cargill, also will be able to export again to China, though it’s not immediately clear how much beef American businesses will be selling to China.

China let licenses for hundreds of U.S. beef plants expire last year, and the import value for 2025 fell to less than $500 million, according to USDA figures. China’s purchases of U.S. beef had peaked at $2.14 billion in 2022, the government data shows.

The US export of poultry meats and products to China was $286 million in 2025, down from more than $1 billion in 2022.

Trump and Xi used summit to find areas of economic cooperation

During the summit last week, Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi discussed ways to enhance economic cooperation, including expanding market access for American businesses in China and increasing Chinese investment into U.S. industries, the White House had said.

The two leaders agreed to set up separate boards of trade and investment — though offered few details on the proposals or how they would differ from existing trade dialogues.

The Board of Trade will allow the two governments to manage trade of “non-sensitive goods,” and the Board of Investments would provide a venue for the two sides to discuss investment-related issues, according to the White House.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said the two bodies would address respective concerns regarding trade and investment.

The Board of Trade, the ministry spokesperson said, would allow the two sides to discuss issues such as tariff reductions on specific products. “In principle, the two sides agreed to reduce tariff on products of respective concern at equivalent scale,” the spokesperson said.

Xi said last week that China’s door of opportunity will open wider when he met with US business leaders joining Trump on the trip. Among those who travelled to Beijing was Brian Sikes, CEO of the agricultural giant Cargill.

Soybeans, which are used for livestock feed and biofuels in China, are among the top US agricultural exports. Soybean exports to China in the past had accounted for about half of U.S. exports of agricultural goods to the Asian nation.

USDA data shows the U.S. exported 10.9 million metric tonnes of soybeans to China as of May 7, putting China on track to fulfil its previous commitment by the end of the marketing year on August 31. This is well below the 25 million to 30 million metric tonnes that China purchased in past years.

Before Trump’s initial planned trip to Beijing in late March — which was postponed by the Iran war — the American Soybean Association urged him to prioritise soybeans in the trade talks with Xi.

Scott Metzger, president of the association, said Thursday the group would like to see “additional soybean purchases this marketing year, as well as continued progress toward fulfilling future purchase commitments.”

“Greater certainty and consistency in the marketplace help provide farmers with the confidence they need as they make decisions for the year ahead,” he said.

Published – May 18, 2026 11:13 am IST

Beijing, China:

Donald Trump is back in the White House, promising to use the United States’s vast economic weight to hit back at China for its alleged unfair trade practices and role in the deadly American fentanyl crisis.

This week, the mercurial magnate said 10 percent tariffs on all Chinese imports could kick in on February 1 — and on the campaign trail touted a levy as high as 60 percent.

China has warned that there are “no winners” in a trade war and vowed to defend its economic interests.

Here’s where the China-US trade relationship stands:

How much trade is at stake?

Trade between China and the United States — the world’s two largest economies — is vast, totalling more than $530 billion in the first eleven months of 2024, according to Washington.

Over that same period, sales of Chinese goods to the United States totalled more than $400 billion, second only to Mexico.

According to the Peterson Institute of International Economics (PIIE), China is the dominant supplier of goods from electronics and electrical machinery, to textiles and clothing.

But a yawning trade imbalance — $270.4 billion for January to November last year — has long raised hackles in Washington.

As has China’s vast state support for its industry, sparking accusations of dumping, as well as its perceived mistreatment of US firms operating in its territory.

But China’s economy remains heavily reliant on exports to drive growth despite official efforts to raise domestic consumption — making its leaders reluctant to change the status quo.

What happened during Trump’s first term?

Trump stormed into the White House in 2016 vowing to get even with China, launching a trade war that slapped significant tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods.

China responded with retaliatory tariffs on American products — particularly affecting US farmers.

Key US demands were greater access to China’s markets, broad reform of a business playing field that heavily favours Chinese firms, and a loosening of heavy state control by Beijing.

After long, fraught negotiations the two sides agreed what became known as the “phase one” trade deal — a ceasefire in the nearly two-year-old trade war.

Under that agreement, Beijing agreed to import $200 billion worth of US goods, including $32 billion in farm products and seafood.

But in the face of the pandemic and a US recession, analysts say Beijing fell well short of that commitment.

“In the end, China bought only 58 percent of the US exports it had committed to purchase under the agreement, not even enough to reach its import levels from before the trade war,” PIIE’S Chad P Brown wrote.

“Put differently, China bought none of the additional $200 billion of exports Trump’s deal had promised.”

How did things change under Biden?

Trump’s successor Joe Biden did not roll back increases imposed by his predecessor, but took a more targeted approach when it came to tariff hikes.

Under Biden, Washington expanded efforts to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China — part of a broader effort to prevent sensitive US technologies being used in Beijing’s military arsenal.

His administration has also used tariffs to take aim at what it called China’s “industrial overcapacity” — fears the country’s industrial subsidies for green energy, cars and batteries could flood global markets with cheap goods.

Last May, Biden ordered $18 billion worth of imports from China be slapped with tariffs, accusing Beijing of “cheating” rather than competing.

Under the hikes, tariffs on EVs quadrupled to 100 percent, while the tariff for semiconductors will surge from 25 percent to 50 percent.

The measures also targeted strategic sectors such as batteries, critical minerals and medical products.

Both sides have also launched investigations into the others’ alleged unfair trade practices with probes into dumping and state subsidies.

What happens next?

With Biden gone, all eyes are on whether Trump will follow through on these threats — or if the rhetoric was an opening gambit in negotiations.

Trump has long viewed tariffs as a bargaining tool — an “all-purpose bludgeon”, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial.

He has also tied tariffs to the fate of Chinese-owned social media app TikTok — warning of retaliation if a deal cannot be struck to sell it.

Many breathed a sigh of relief when a “shock and awe” blitz of executive orders signed on Trump’s first day in office did not feature tariffs on Chinese goods.

But Trump did order a sweeping review by top officials into a number of Chinese trade practices — with reports due by April 1.

“Although no immediate tariff hike is an upside surprise, extended uncertainty may still weigh on confidence,” HSBC economists wrote in a note Wednesday.

“That said, the lack of concrete tariffs at this juncture may suggest that Trump is open to further negotiations with China,” they added.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)