President Donald Trump injected fresh tensions into the relationship between China and the U.S. by stating that he might stop trade in cooking oil with the Southeast Asian nation.
Bloomberg said the U.S. President described the potential move as retaliation against China for its refusal to buy American soybeans, calling it an “economically hostile act” that’s purposefully causing U.S. soybean farmers great difficulty.
Trump said the U.S. is considering terminating Chinese cooking oil imports because America can easily produce cooking oil itself. “We don’t need to purchase it from China,” Trump posted on social media.
The comments came after the President and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer expressed confidence that friction would ease.
Reuters said that the U.S. was the top market for Chinese cooking oil, importing a record 1.27 million metric tons in 2024, worth approximately $1.1 billion.
U.S. imports plunged this year, totaling 290,700 tons from January through August.
