Latest U.S.-China Agriculture Talks Expand Purchasing Pledges Beyond Soybeans

President Donald Trump’s recent meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing concluded with a commitment from China to purchase $17 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products annually in 2026, 2027, and 2028—on top of a distinct set of soybean purchase commitments from October 2025. If met, these purchase pledges would return U.S.-China agriculture trade to pre-2025 levels.

  1. The commitments come amid a decline in U.S.-China agricultural trade that started well before Washington reignited a trade conflict with Beijing in the spring of 2025. Increased competition from overseas growers, shifts in China’s purchasing patterns, and price pressure from rising U.S. input costs have all contributed to this slowdown.  
  2. To meet the latest commitments, Chinese traders would need to increase purchases of U.S. corn, cotton, sorghum, wheat, and/or beef, in addition to soybeans. Meeting these commitments would likely require China to reduce imports from some combination of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, and Canada.  
  3. Reaching these commitments is not a given. The last major U.S.-China agriculture purchasing pledges—included in the so-called “Phase One” trade agreement in 2020—concluded with China reaching only 83 percent of its pledged two-year agriculture purchases. 

CSIS Charts is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).

© 2026 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.

Hugh Nolan Grant-Chapman

Hugh Grant-Chapman

Fellow, Economics Program and Scholl Chair in International Business

Programs & Projects

Related Content