According to a Bloomberg report, US is asking China to shift some tariffs away from agricultural goods to other products. And China is in consideration.
The request came as Trump didn’t want to lift punitive tariffs on China even when a trade deal is made. Yet, Bloomberg said Trump want to “sell any eventual trade deal as a win for farmers ahead of the 2020 election”. But there was no explanation on why the agricultural industry has this special privilege over others. And there is no indications on which industries are going to take the burden, and why.
It’s also noted that the shift could make it easier for China to ramp up its purchases of US agricultural goods as part of the trade deal. But again, there is no details on whether China will cut imports from others countries, and who they will buy less from.
At this point, we’ll treat this as a speculation as no one from USTR nor MOFCOM have responded. And we don’t expect them to.
