China will suspend for one year the additional 24 percent tariffs it imposed on US goods in April, while maintaining the 10 percent levies also introduced in response to US President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, its cabinet confirmed on Wednesday.
The State Council’s tariff commission also announced it would eliminate tariffs of up to 15 percent it imposed on certain U.S. agricultural products starting Nov. 10, referring to a March statement detailing which products the world’s top agricultural buyer would begin taxing on imports.
But the cut still leaves Chinese soybean buyers facing 13 percent tariffs, including a pre-existing 3 percent base tariff. Traders say that leaves U.S. shipments still too expensive for commercial buyers compared to Brazilian alternatives.
Before Trump took office in 2017 and began the first US-China trade war, soybeans were by far the top US export to China, with the world’s largest agricultural buyer buying $13.8 billion worth of the staple in 2016.
But China has largely delayed purchasing American crops this year, costing American farmers billions of dollars in lost exports. In 2024, China bought about 20 percent of its soybeans from the United States, up from 41 percent in 2016, customs data shows.
Investors on both sides of the Pacific breathed a sigh of relief last week when Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, easing fears that the world’s two largest economies could abandon talks aimed at resolving a tariff war that has disrupted global supply chains.
While Trump and the White House were quick to release their take on the meeting, the Chinese side did not immediately act to provide a detailed summary of what they had agreed upon.
Chinese state-owned COFCO bought three shipments of American soybeans the day before the summit, an act analysts attributed to a goodwill gesture that signals Beijing’s desire to avoid a destabilizing escalation in trade tensions.
Some market participants expressed doubt that soybean trading will return to normal anytime soon.
“We don’t expect any demand from China to return to the US market with this change,” said a trader at an international trading firm. “Brazil is cheaper than the United States and even non-Chinese buyers are accepting Brazilian shipments.
