The U.S. has shifted the deadline for China to import soybeans from American farmers after it emerged that China was not buying enough, amid fresh doubts about the country’s commitments just as President Donald Trump tries to appease farmers with a $12 billion bailout.
U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday that the cutoff for China to buy 12 million metric tons of the crop was not the end of December as the White House had previously said, but the end of the “growing season.”
At about three million metric tons so far, China’s purchases of U.S. soybeans are well behind schedule to hit…
The U.S. has shifted the deadline for China to import soybeans from American farmers after it emerged that China was not buying enough, amid fresh doubts about the country’s commitments just as President Donald Trump tries to appease farmers with a $12 billion bailout.
U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday that the cutoff for China to buy 12 million metric tons of the crop was not the end of December as the White House had previously said, but the end of the “growing season.”
At about three million metric tons so far, China’s purchases of U.S. soybeans are well behind schedule to hit the agreed amount by the end of 2025, CNBC reports, a dynamic Greer described as a “discrepancy.”
Soybeans emerged as a key sticking point in recent trade talks between the two countries after China, previously a major buyer, stopped importing the crop from America. The October trade truce between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping saw China agree to start taking shipments again, with 12 million metric tons pencilled for November and December.
Trump announced the $12 billion aid package for U.S. farmers on Monday, saying it would come from the tariff revenue collected this year. He said it would give farmers “much-needed certainty.”
But Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer said at the hearing that “there remains anxiety about if and when China will fully follow through on those purchase commitments that were made.” She pointed to the White House fact sheet that also said China would buy 25 million metric tons in each of the next three years.
“It is for this growing season, so, thank you for highlighting that,” Greer said. “We’ve heard from a couple farmers, they wanted to know about that discrepancy, and it is a discrepancy, it’s through the growing season.”
Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at a New York Times event that “China is on track to keep every part of the deal, every part of the deal.”
When challenged on the slow pace of soybean purchases, he said the target was “the end of the season, so I think that’ll be Feb. 28.”
Earlier this week it emerged that China’s export machine had roared back to life in November, pushing its trade surplus for 2025 over the $1 trillion threshold for the first time on record, as it appeared to shrug off Trump’s tariff regime.
The office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately respond to Quartz’s request for comment.
—Catherine Baab contributed to this article.