U.S. farmers could see a return to a pre-trade war level of ag sales to China by the 2020 election.
Bloomberg says that would relieve economic pressure on one of President Trump’s key voting blocs as he campaigns for another term.
The president announced a tentative partial trade deal back on October 11. China is looking to buy $20 billion worth of agricultural products per year if the partial deal with the U.S. is signed.
People familiar with the negotiations told Bloomberg that China would consider boosting that level of purchases as high as $40-50 billion.
That would take China’s imports of American commodities back to near-2017 levels before the feud broke out between the White House and Beijing.
People close to the situation say increasing the level of purchases would depend on President Trump removing remaining punitive tariffs.
Beijing says it will exempt some U.S. agricultural goods from tariffs if the U.S. removes tariffs imposed on September 1 and cancels the tariff hike scheduled for December.
President Trump is hoping that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping will sign a phase-one deal when they meet in Chile next month. Chinese officials have also said publicly that talks are progressing.
