Soon after China announced a partial trade agreement with the U.S., their purchases of American soybeans in November jumped higher. November imports jumped to 5.4 million tons, which was almost 54 percent higher than last year. U.S. soybean imports into China more than doubled from the previous month?s 2.6 million tons. That number comes from AWeb.com, a news website that serves the Chinese farming industry.
China cut off purchases of U.S. soybeans as the trade war with Washington, D.C., kicked into high gear. While the two countries announced the ?Phase One? deal back in October, they haven?t released any specific details regarding the agreement. U.S. officials now think the agreement could be signed as early as January. As a part of the agreement, U.S. officials say Beijing will be buying a lot more U.S. farm products. However, Chinese officials have yet to confirm how big the purchases will be.
Chinese government spokespeople did confirm that importers were already placing orders in September but didn?t give out any details of those purchases. Chinese buyers use a lot of soybeans as animal feed and to crush for their cooking oil.
