China and the United States have agreed to expand agricultural trade through mutual tariff reductions and by addressing key market access concerns following a high-level summit in Beijing, China’s commerce ministry announced on Saturday.
The ministry characterized the agreements reached during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit as “preliminary,” noting that technical teams from both sides are actively working to finalize the official arrangements as quickly as possible.
The breakthrough comes amid efforts to stabilize heavily disrupted trade flows. Despite recent positive dialogue, Chinese imports of American agricultural products still face an additional 10 percent retaliatory tariff enacted last year. Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) highlights the steep toll of these tensions, showing that bilateral agricultural trade plummeted 65.7 percent year-on-year to $8.4 billion in 2025.
According to China’s commerce ministry, both nations intend to revitalize two-way commerce through reciprocal tariff reductions spanning various product categories, though the statement stopped short of identifying specific commodities.
Beijing had already resumed purchases of select American agricultural goods following an initial meeting in October, successfully fulfilling a U.S.-announced commitment to import 12 million metric tons of soybeans by the end of February. China has also quietly stepped up its procurement of U.S. wheat cargoes and substantial volumes of sorghum.
Market analysts anticipate that a potential 10 percent reduction in soybean tariffs could be on the horizon. Such a move would allow private Chinese commercial crushers to aggressively re-enter the market, which was largely dominated by state-owned traders during the U.S. harvest season last year.
“Tariff reductions on agricultural products would mark a normalization of China-U.S. farm trade, allowing commercial buyers to re-enter the market,” said Johnny Xiang, founder of Beijing-based AgRadar Consulting.
Beyond standard duties, the commerce ministry affirmed that both capitals have pledged to “resolve or make substantive progress” on persistent non-tariff barriers and market access bottlenecks hindering agricultural exports.
As part of the cooperative push, China stated it would systematically address American grievances concerning the formal registration of U.S. beef facilities and poultry exports from specific states.
Signs of implementation emerged early on Friday when Beijing granted five-year registration extensions to 425 U.S. beef processing plants—facilities that had been effectively locked out of the Chinese market since their registrations lapsed last year. China also issued fresh five-year approvals for 77 additional U.S. plants.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins turned to social media to confirm the regulatory momentum.
“China had agreed to implement commitments involving the resumption of beef imports from 17 American states,” Rollins stated in a post on X.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer expressed strong optimism regarding the deal’s long-term scale on Friday, signaling that Washington expects China to buy “double-digit billions” worth of U.S. agricultural commodities over the next three years.
However, neither government has released the definitive annexes detailing specific product breakdowns, exact trade values, or projected shipping volumes under the new framework.