Bessent pointed out that the upcoming negotiations occur before the scheduled Nov 10 expiration of a truce on the highest level of tariffs that each country had levelled at the other with earlier this year. Despite that truce, China has curtailed purchases of US soybeans, stoking concern not just in the agriculture industry but among politicians representing farming districts.
“It’s unfortunate the Chinese leadership has decided to use the American farmers, soybean farmers, in particular, as a hostage or pawn in the trade negotiations,” Bessent said.
The Treasury chief said that he had a meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday with Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, and that news would be coming next Tuesday on support for American farmers, and the soy sector in particular.
