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Blizzard of numbers hides poor prospects for $17-bil ag purchase target

Prospects for U.S. agricultural exports to China are still murky after Chinese negotiators dropped a 1619-item list of items that will be "considered" for tariff reductions after last week's Trump-Xi summit. The list was released by the White House as part of a plan for establishing a U.S.-China Board of Trade composed of Chinese and U.S. officials that aims to "optimize" trade between the two countries. Each country released a "30-for-30" list of products that the U.S. and China will consider for reductions of country-specific tariffs. Each list apparently is composed of commodities that had $30 billion in trade in 2024, the year before the current trade war began.  A Chinese official explained that the "30 billion-for-30 billion" framework was agreed by Chinese Ministry of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative officials at their May meeting. He said tariffs will be lowered to the Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) rate about 90% of the items, and...
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