By Naveen Thukral and Ella Cao
SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) -China has booked two cargoes of U.S. wheat following last week’s meeting between the countries’ leaders, traders said on Thursday, the first such purchases since October last year, signalling easing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Investors welcomed the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, which helped ease concerns over the trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies that had disrupted flows of goods including key agricultural products.
Beijing on Wednesday announced that from November 10 it would scrap tariffs that it had announced on March 4 for some U.S. agricultural goods. The move includes removing a 15% duty on U.S. wheat.
The purchases of around 120,000 metric tons for December shipment include one cargo of U.S. soft white wheat and one of spring wheat, the sources said.
“This is more of China showing commitment to buy U.S. grains as U.S. wheat is not the cheapest wheat around,” said one Singapore-based grains trader who has direct knowledge of these deals. “So it is more of political move to buy these cargoes.”
China, the top market for U.S. farmers, has turned its vast appetite for U.S. crops into a powerful trade war bargaining chip.
After several rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs, Chinese buyers have largely avoided U.S. farm goods, including wheat and soybeans, in favour of other supplies.
China imported 1.9 million tons of U.S. wheat in 2024, making up 17% of its total imports.
However, China has reduced overall wheat imports this year following large harvests. Wheat imports in January-September dropped 72% from the same period last year.
In another positive sign on the trade front, a shipment of sorghum has been sent from the U.S. to China since Trump and Xi met, the chairman of the U.S. Grains and BioProducts Council, Mark Wilson, told Reuters.
The U.S. shipped 5.7 million tons of sorghum to China in 2024, accounting for 66% of its sorghum imports.
(Reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Additional reporting by Ella Cao in Beijing and Michael Hogan in Hamburg; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Sonali Paul)
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