Because China will buy more soy and oil from the United States

How and why the US-China confrontation on the trade agreement was postponed. The soy and oil case

The videoconference between US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Vice-Premier Liu He has been postponed until a later date. It was announced a few days ago as an opportunity to take stock of phase 1 of the trade agreement between the two powers.

THE TWO US HEAD NEGOTIATORS HAD TO MAKE THE POINT SIX MONTHS FROM THE SIGNING OF PHASE 1 OF THE AGREEMENT

Therefore, the long-awaited confrontation between the two chief negotiators of the US and China, which would have taken place exactly six months after the signing of the agreement on February 15, is missing.

Since no new date has been communicated on which to recover, it is reasonable to think that there was some problem between the two delegations. In fact, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters that the postponement was due to a concomitant meeting of senior Communist Party officials in the city of Beidaihe. But it does not seem, in all truth, a good excuse.

THE POSTPONEMENT PROBABLY DUE TO A DELAY IN CHINESE PURCHASES

The most probable thesis is instead that the US wanted to give China more time to reach the set goal of purchasing goods and services from the US for an amount greater than 77 billion dollars compared to 2017. A goal that Beijing was unable to do. to reach due to the Coronavirus emergency.

In fact, there is no lack of signs that, once the emergency has returned, China has returned to making bulk purchases on the US market precisely to achieve the objectives of the agreement with the US.

CHINA IS ACCELERATING PURCHASES IN THE US MARKET

In this regard, Reuters reports that the Department of Agriculture has just recorded the sale of 126,000 tons of soybeans to China in what was the eighth significant purchase in recent weeks by Chinese buyers.

Reuters itself was able to learn from American producers that Beijing is about to buy at least 20 million barrels of oil between this month and next.

It will also be for these signs that Donald Trump on Friday said that the agreement with China is "going very well" and that the videoconference on the 15th has been postponed without trauma.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/la-cina-comprera-piu-soia-e-petrolio-dagli-stati-uniti/ on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 14:15:16 +0000.