Trump’s gift to Biden: record agricultural exports to China

Chinese shopping: Strong demand from China, which has recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic faster than most other countries, has helped bolster USDA forecasts.

For the period October to December, exports to China “reached an all-time high of $ 14.4 billion, largely due to strong shipments of soybeans, corn, sorghum, wheat, cotton and of chicken feet, ”the USDA said. “Exceptional sales of many of these products remain strong, with corn sales at record levels.”

Fiscal year 2021 began on October 1 and therefore includes the last three months and 20 days in office of former President Donald Trump. U.S. agricultural exports to China are also likely to set a new record for calendar year 2021, barring an unexpected slowdown.

Phase one agreement: The numbers are partial rationale for Trump, who signed a Phase 1 trade deal with China in January 2020 aimed largely at boosting U.S. agricultural exports. But Beijing’s purchases under the deal have always been below expectations.

U.S. officials said China pledged to purchase about $ 30 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products in 2020 and about $ 38 billion in 2021. U.S. agricultural exports to China doubled last year, to reach about $ 26.4 billion, but missed the phase one target.

China was the largest foreign market for U.S. agricultural products before Trump took office in 2017. U.S. agricultural exports to China that year totaled $ 19.5 billion, compared with $ 21.4 billion. in 2016, the last year of Barack Obama’s administration.

After Trump began imposing tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese goods, Beijing retaliated by imposing tariffs on U.S. agricultural exports. U.S. agricultural exports to China collapsed, falling to $ 9.1 billion in 2018.

Today, China is once again the export market for American agricultural products, the USDA said.

And after: The Biden administration is examining Trump’s Phase 1 deal and the tariffs he imposed on more than $ 350 billion in Chinese goods. Biden’s candidate for U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai could face questions on these matters during her Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing next Thursday.