China?s purchases of U.S. farm commodities still lag behind targets set in the Phase One Agreement, according to research by the Peterson Institute. Through October 2020, China’s year-to-date total imports of covered products from the United States were $75.5 billion, compared with a prorated year-to-date target of $137.3 billion. Over the same period, U.S. exports to China of covered products were $70.3 billion, compared with a year-to-date target of $125.4 billion.
Through the first ten months of 2020, China’s purchases of all covered products were thus only at 56 percent for U.S. exports or 55 percent of Chinese imports of their year-to-date targets. Through October 2020, China’s imports of covered agricultural products were $15.6 billion, compared with a year-to-date target of $27.1 billion. Over the same period, US exports of covered agricultural products were $17.5 billion, compared with a year-to-date target of $24.6 billion. The data is based on October 2020 statistics released last week.
