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President Donald Trump was clearly surprised Monday – and asked "why?" – when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that US officials had asked members of China's trade delegation to cancel a visit to a planned US farm last week.
US stock indexes plunged on Friday at the announcement of the cancellation of a planned farm visit to Bozeman, Montana, and Omaha, Nebraska, following the conclusion by the Chinese delegation of trade negotiations in Washington.
On Monday, Trump was asked about the impact of the cancellation on trade negotiations with China. The question was asked at a bilateral meeting at the United Nations between Trump, other officials and the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
"Well, they are starting to buy a lot of our agricultural products," Trump said. "But Steven, could you perhaps," said the president, referring to Mnuchin.
Mnuchin then said, "It's actually at our request, they delayed that."
"So, we did not want there to be confusion.They started buying agriculture," continued the head of the Treasury. "They will postpone this to a different time.The timing did not work.But it was – it was purely at our request."
Trump then asked Mnuchin, "Why was this our request, just out of curiosity?"
The president punctuated this question with a laugh that seemed to indicate more discontent – or unease – than humor.
Mnuchin began to respond, "We did not want to be confused about trade issues."
Trump intervened quickly: "Yes, but I want them to buy farm produce."
Mnuchin then replied, "There was no confusion.We want them to buy agriculture.They are committed to buying agriculture.And they do it. "
Trump added, "They are committed to buying a lot of agriculture, and they will start, and they started."
"And we should send them there as soon as possible so that they can start buying," said the president.
Trump has a habit of publicly contradicting Mnuchin on various issues, including alleged currency manipulation by China, the links between the security of the Huawei technology company and the trade negotiations with China, as establishing conditions conducive to negotiations with Iran.
On June 24, 2019, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, spoke before the signing of a sanctions decree against the Iranian Supreme Leader at the Oval Office of the White House.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
Trump said in June that China would buy "massive amounts" of US agricultural products as a result of a meeting between him and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Those promised purchase did not arrive.
US Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, said Thursday that he hoped the Chinese delegation's visit to the farm would lead to new purchase agreements.
Shortly before the cancellation of the visit to China, Michelle Erickson-Jones, a farmer from Montana, said that it was "very encouraging to see that we expect that a delegation of the Chinese negotiating team travels to Montana ".
"We have experienced increased costs and the loss of a key export market since we passed the rates and we had to face retaliatory tariffs in 2018," Erickson said. Jones, former president of the Montana Grain Growers Association.
Since March 2018, Montana wheat farms have seen their sales in China drop to almost nothing after making annual sales of $ 65 million in the previous five years, she said.
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