White House Says China Will Buy At Least $17 Billion In US Agricultural Products Every Year Until 2028

(MENAFN- Live Mint) China has reportedly agreed to purchase a minimum of $17 billion worth of US agricultural products each year through 2028, the White House announced on Sunday, following high-level talks between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The pledge, if fulfilled, would represent a dramatic reversal from 2025, when US farm exports to China collapsed by 65.7 per cent year on year to just $8.4 billion amid an escalating cycle of retaliatory tariffs.

What China Has Agreed to Buy

The $17 billion annual floor covers the three-year period spanning 2026, 2027 and 2028, according to a White House fact sheet. Notably, the figure does not account for soybean purchase commitments that China made separately in October 2025, suggesting the total volume of expected agricultural trade could be considerably higher.

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Beyond the headline number, Beijing has also agreed to work with US regulators to lift existing suspensions on American beef processing facilities and to resume imports of poultry from US states that have been certified free of avian influenza. Both measures had been longstanding irritants in bilateral agricultural trade.

A New Framework for Trade and Investment

The agricultural commitments form part of a broader diplomatic architecture agreed upon during Donald Trump-Xi Jinping's meetings in Beijing. The White House confirmed that both governments will establish a US-China Board of Trade and a US-China Board of Investment, a move that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had signalled earlier.

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Wang Yi described the purpose of the new bodies in a statement last week, saying they will resolve concerns over market access for agricultural products and expand trade "under a reciprocal tariff-reduction framework."

How Far US-China Agricultural Trade Has Fallen

The depth of the current pledge can only be understood against the backdrop of how sharply trade ties have deteriorated. US agricultural exports to China stood at $8.4 billion in 2025, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture, a figure that reflects the cumulative damage of successive rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by both sides.

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The relationship between the two countries' farm sectors has been fraying for nearly a decade. China sourced roughly 20 per cent of its soybeans from the US in 2024, the year before Trump returned to office. That figure was 41 per cent in 2016, underscoring how systematically Beijing has worked to diversify away from American suppliers since Trump's first term in the White House.

Why This Deal Matters for US Farmers

American agricultural producers, particularly soybean farmers concentrated in the Midwest, have long depended on Chinese demand to absorb surplus production. The erosion of that market share to competitors such as Brazil has been a source of sustained economic pressure on farming communities. A binding multi-year purchase commitment, if honoured, would offer a degree of certainty that has been absent from US-China agricultural trade for years.

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