China agreed to increase purchases of U.S. agricultural products such as beef and poultry after President Donald Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing, the White House announced Sunday. The White House said the agreements call for China to buy U.S. farm goods at an annualized rate of about $17 billion per year for 2026 and to purchase at that same level during 2027 and 2028.
The White House said China would restore market access for U.S. beef and resume poultry imports from U.S. states the U.S. Department of Agriculture has determined are free of avian influenza. The announcement came two days after Trump returned from the high-stakes summit in Beijing that sought to ease pressure on American farmers after last year’s trade war.
Beijing did not immediately confirm the specific terms, and China’s Ministry of Commerce said Saturday that the two sides would “resolve or make substantial progress toward resolving certain non-tariff barriers and market access issues” regarding agricultural goods. In the same statement, a ministry spokesperson said the U.S. would “actively work” to address China’s concerns involving items including dairy products, seafood, potted bonsai exports, and the recognition of Shandong province as a bird-flu-free zone.
The ministry spokesperson said the Chinese side would “likewise actively work” to address U.S. concerns, including China’s beef processing facility registration and exports of poultry meat from certain states to China. The statement also said the two sides agreed to expand trade, including farm goods, through measures such as reciprocal tariff reductions on “a specific range of products,” without specifying which products.
The new commitments add to a soybean deal China made last year as part of a trade truce Trump reached with Xi in October, when China agreed to resume buying U.S. soybeans. The White House said at that time China committed to buying 12 million metric tons in the current marketing year and 25 million metric tons for each of the next three years.
The AP report also cited U.S. Department of Agriculture data showing how sharply Chinese imports fell during the tariff war. China’s imports of U.S. agricultural goods peaked in 2022 at $38 billion but dropped to $8 billion in 2025, including soybean purchases falling to $3 billion in 2025 from nearly $18 billion in 2022, the report said.
U.S. soybean exports to China had been a major share of American agricultural sales, but China stopped purchasing U.S. soybeans altogether last year after Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese goods. USDA data referenced in the report showed the U.S. exported 10.9 million metric tons of soybeans to China as of May 7, putting China on track to fulfill the earlier commitment by the end of the marketing year on Aug. 31, the report said.
Beyond soybeans, the White House said the agreements also reopen exports for hundreds of U.S. beef plants, including those run by Tyson and Cargill, though the report said it was not immediately clear how much beef American companies would sell to China. The report said China let licenses for hundreds of U.S. beef plants expire last year, and that the import value for 2025 fell to less than $500 million, citing USDA figures. The report also said U.S. poultry meat exports to China were $286 million in 2025, down from more than $1 billion in 2022.
During the summit, Trump and Xi discussed ways to enhance economic cooperation, including expanding market access for American businesses in China and increasing Chinese investment into U.S. industries, according to the White House. The leaders agreed to set up separate boards of trade and investment, and the White House said the Board of Trade would manage trade in “non-sensitive goods,” while the Board of Investments would provide a venue for investment-related discussions. This story has been tracking the effort to stabilize trade after Trump and Xi met in Beijing as MSI previously reported.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said the boards would address each side’s concerns regarding trade and investment. It said the Board of Trade would allow the two sides to discuss issues such as tariff reductions on specific products, and that “in principle, the two sides agreed to reduce tariff on products of respective concern at equivalent scale,” according to the ministry spokesperson. The ministry also pointed to China’s view that food security and national security are linked, and that China has diversified sources of imported soybeans, beef and other farm goods.
The report noted that farmers were looking for relief after the trade war hurt export markets for soybeans and other commodities, while also dealing with new pressure as Trump administration policies and the war involving Iran have curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Those disruptions have restricted global fertilizer supplies and sent fertilizer prices soaring, the report said.
An American Soybean Association official urged Trump to prioritize soybeans in talks with Xi before the summit trip, and the report quoted Scott Metzger, the association president, as saying the group wanted “additional soybean purchases this marketing year,” along with continued progress toward fulfilling future purchase commitments. Metzger also said, “Greater certainty and consistency in the marketplace help provide farmers with the confidence they need as they make decisions for the year ahead,” according to the report.
The report said among the U.S. business leaders who traveled to Beijing with Trump was Brian Sikes, CEO of Cargill, and it also described soybeans as among China’s top U.S. agricultural imports, used for livestock feed and biofuels.