China’s record Brazil soyabean imports impede US trade target
Brazil’s soyabean shipments to China hit a monthly record of more than 9m tonnes in April, casting doubt on whether Beijing can meet the first-year targets of its trade deal with Washington.
Soyabeans are at the heart of US-Chinese agricultural trading, accounting for almost two-thirds of American exports to China in 2017, prior to the trade war. In January’s US-China phase one trade agreement Beijing pledged to buy at least $80bn of US agricultural products over two years, including $36.5bn in 2020 — $12.5bn more than it spent in 2017.
By Emiko Terazono and Sun Yu via Financial Times