Todd Bishop
In the China-US trade war, American farmers are the most vulnerable. Although the United States wants China to buy a large amount of agricultural products, China has not acted. Trump’s trade war was again criticized by his biggest rival, Biden.
On July 11th, US President Donald Trump said on the social network Twitter: “China has let us down. They said that they will buy Chinese agricultural products but they have not acted. I hope they will start soon!”
In the trade war provoked by Trump, American farmers were the hardest hit. On the 11th, Joe Biden, the former US vice president and Democratic Party’s 2020 general election candidate, again criticized Trump’s trade war for the peasants of the United States when he spoke at the City University of New York.
Biden said that Trump may think that he is tough on China, but the result is that American farmers, manufacturers and consumers are losing more and paying more. “His economic decision-making is so stunned, and he is as blind as his other foreign policy.”
It is reported that the Osaka “Study Conference” at the end of June made the China-US trade negotiations restart. The big appeal of the United States is that China immediately purchases a large amount of American agricultural products, which makes American farmers sigh. American farmers gave Trump great support in the 2016 general election, and the biggest blow in the trade war was the American farmers. On the eve of the 2020 election, Trump will definitely want to stabilize the rear.
On June 29, Trump also held a personal press conference after the end of the “Study Conference”, announcing that he would relax restrictions on the procurement of US technology by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., allowing US companies to export to Huawei without posing a security risk. Parts. At the same time, Trump also said: “China will buy a lot of food and agricultural products, they will start soon, almost immediately will start buying.”
Subsequently, the United States has been expecting China to purchase large quantities of US agricultural products, but Trump’s wish so far seems to have failed because China has been slow to act. Larry Kudlow, the White House’s chief economic adviser, said in an interview on July 10 that China has not yet purchased, but this is part of the dialogue.
But is China really making a purchase commitment as Trump said? The facts may be more complicated. In China’s press release on the “Study Conference,” we can only find a sentence about purchasing American products. “The US hopes that China can increase imports from the United States.” The press release did not say that China had promised.
Subsequently, Western media continued to report that China did not make a commitment to purchase. The New York Times reported on July 10 that people familiar with the negotiations revealed that China denied any clear commitment to purchase US agricultural products during the dialogue, but said that buying large quantities of agricultural products depends on the final trade agreement between the two countries. Progress has been made, and this is still far away.
The report pointed out that sources said that Beijing continues to pressure the United States to lift tariffs on China’s $250 billion in goods, while allowing China to change its intellectual property laws and other regulations more gradually. The Trump administration insists on retaining tariffs, but is also eager to find a solution that will allow China to buy large quantities of US produce.
At the same time, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters also reported that Xi Jinping did not make such a commitment during his meeting with Trump. Trump mentioned the issue of buying agricultural products twice during the meeting, but Xi Jinping only agreed to buy American agricultural products under the framework of signing a wide-ranging final agreement.
On July 5th, the official WeChat public account of the official Chinese media “Economic Daily” “Taoran notes” clearly stated that the purchase of US agricultural products is a unique bargaining chip in China. If the US side re-emerges in the consultations, then the purchase of US agricultural products may be repeated.
In fact, regarding the purchase of agricultural products, this has always been a core bottom line for China. Liu He, Vice Premier of the State Council of China, proposed three conditions for an agreement between China and the United States in Washington in May. One of the conditions is that the number of purchases must be realistic.
