Chinese companies have begun looking into the prices of US agricultural goods, a development that comes a day after Washington and Beijing eased tariffs and signals a possible easing in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
The inquiries into the cost of soybeans, pork and other farm products announced Thursday come as officials from the two countries are expected to return to the negotiating table in October after months of stalemate.
President Trump marked the development in a tweet.
”It is expected that China will be buying large amounts of our agricultural products!,” he posted on his Twitter page.
Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Feng said Beijing welcomed Trump delaying for two weeks a new round of tariffs that were to begin on Oct. 1.
China “hopes both sides would continue to meet each other half way and adopt concrete actions to create favorable conditions for negotiations,” he said.
Trump’s “gesture of goodwill” on Wednesday came as Beijing said it would exempt 16 US imports from tariffs, but it kept the penalties on soybeans, the biggest US export to China.
The escalating trade war between the two countries has led to duties on billions of dollars in goods.
On Sept. 1, the Trump administration imposed 15 percent tariffs on $115 billion worth of Chinese goods and will launch another round of penalties on Dec. 15.
China retaliated by placing tariffs on $75 billion worth of US imports.
The negotiations in early October would be the first since talks broke down in May.
With Post wires