China’s Soybean Buying Spree After Trade Truce Thrills Farmers, Shakes Markets
After years of fraught trade relations, Washington and Beijing reached a breakthrough at a summit in Busan, South Korea on October 30, 2025. U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping agreed to a one-year pause in their tariff war – a deal that included major agricultural commitments. Both leaders hailed an “amazing” meeting as they shook hands on a U.S.-China trade trucets2.tech. Under the accord, China pledged to resume buying U.S. soybeans and energy, while the U.S. agreed to scale back some tariffsts2.tech. Notably, Beijing said it will defer new rare-earth export controls for a year and the U.S. will cut certain tariffsts2.tech. For American farmers, the centerpiece was China’s promise to restart hefty soybean purchases. Trump told reporters that China would start buying “tremendous amounts of soybeans and other farm products immediately”reuters.com. The lack of Chinese orders had been devastating – Chinese buyers had shunned the entire U.S. autumn soybean harvest this year, leaving U.S. silos full and prices slumpingreuters.comaxios.com. Now, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed the details: China agreed to purchase 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans between now and January and 25 million tons each year for the next three yearsreuters.com. “Our great soybean
