Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One, Trump said his team had spoken to Chinese officials earlier that day.
“They’re in the process of doing, not only a little bit, but they’ll be doing a lot of soybean purchase,” he said.
The president added that China will buy “a lot of soybeans” before spring, as well as “a lot of everything else.”
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data, released after the government reopened on Nov. 13, show two Chinese purchases of American soybeans since the Trump–Xi summit in South Korea totaling 332,000 metric tons—well short of the 12 million metric tons Beijing committed to buying by the end of the year.
China is the biggest importer of soybeans in the world. It’s also the biggest buyer of U.S. soybeans, purchasing more than half of America’s soybean exports in most years.
In 2024, China bought 26.8 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans, worth $12.6 billion, but the regime turned away from U.S. beans after the United States increased tariffs on Chinese goods to force Beijing to act on fentanyl control.
U.S. farmers were hopeful that their biggest customer would resume buying their crops. But CoBank’s lead economist for grains and oilseed, Tanner Ehmke, said there isn’t much incentive for China to buy from America right now because they have plenty of soybeans on hand from Brazil and other South American countries, and the remaining tariffs ensure that U.S. soybeans remain more expensive than Brazilian beans.
The Chinese tariff on American beans remains at about 24 percent, despite a 10-percentage-point reduction following the summit.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
