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Smith: China needs U.S. soybeans

The chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee says farmers shouldn’t worry about a lack of interest in ag exports from the world’s largest soybean buyer.

Jason Smith from Missouri says China needs U.S. soybeans.           

“They cannot purchase the quality and the amount of soybeans from us in all the other places in the world. They need our soybeans. They need us as a trading partner more than we need them, but we’re going to get a good areement.”

The U.S. and China continue to negotiate a trade deal with a deadline for more tariffs to go into effect next Tuesday.

Smith says trade talks between the two countries are currently moving in the right direction and as long as there are discussions “that means it’s moving forward. If there weren’t talks, that would be bad news.”

Some market analysts are on alert about U.S. ag exports to China.

Don Roose with U.S. Commodities told Brownfield last week if trade discussions between the U.S. and China continue to drag out, it would be negative for the U.S. farmer, because of the potential lost demand from China as the U.S. crop is harvested in the fall.

And Karen Braun with Zaner Ag Hedge says China’s delay in buying new crop soybeans is a reason U.S. soybean exports are down compared to this time last year.

Smith also tells Brownfield the USDA understands it’s a challenging farm economy and additional trade aid is to be determined.