Name: China is buying U.S. soybeans again, but uncertainty persists
Uploaded: 2025-11-11T04:19:37.443Z
Duration: 2 min 20 s
Description: CNBC’s Eunice Yoon speaks with a delegation of American farmers at an import fair in Shanghai, asking whether they’re optimistic about selling more soybeans to China as trade tensions ease.

CNBC’s Eunice Yoon speaks with a delegation of American farmers at an import fair in Shanghai, asking whether they’re optimistic about selling more soybeans to China as trade tensions ease.

Beijing

China has restarted purchases of U.S. soybeans after a period of halted trade during the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. American farmers, including Illinois grower Scott Gaffner, have been directly affected, with some seeing exports to China drop to zero and being forced to store unsold crops domestically.

Following talks between President Trump and President Xi Jinping, the White House announced new Chinese commitments to buy U.S. soybeans, though these volumes are still below previous years and have not been officially confirmed by China. While the move has brought some optimism to U.S. farmers, significant uncertainty remains due to unresolved structural issues in the broader U.S.-China relationship.

China is buying U.S. soybeans again, but uncertainty persists

China's back to buying U.S. soybeans, which CNBC's Eunice Yoon finds out is much more important than we think. Illinois soybean farmer Scott Gaffner has come to Shanghai to save his China business. We want to make sure that our soybeans are getting exported to China because it's a very important market to us. Gaffner is part of a delegation of American farmers who visited an import fair here after President Trump met China's Xi Jinping in South Korea in part to reboot stalled U.S. soybean sales. Amid the current trade war, the Chinese specifically targeted U.S. soybeans to pressure President Trump. That caused major financial problems for American farmers, like Mr. Gaffner. Gaffner sold 40 percent of his soybean exports to China when he arrived in Shanghai zero. Normally, whenever we're combining the soybeans, we're going to take them right to the river down the river to Louisiana and then ship that to China. But with China not buying any soybeans, we're taking them right to our bins and we're storing them in our bins. Even before the trade war, the Chinese have been buying more from other countries like Brazil and Argentina to diversify away from the United States. After Trump's talks with Xi, there's hope business may be back. The White House says China will buy 12 million metric tons of soybeans by the end of this year and 25 million for each of the next three years. That's still down from the near 27 million China bought in 2024. China has yet to confirm the numbers. We'd like to have just kind of a continuation of smooth sailing. Do I think that's realistic? I don't know. These are two big, powerful countries, a lot of issues. That uncertainty is typical of the whole U.S.-China relationship. Is the relationship back to normal? Depending on how you define normal, the two sides have done enough to stabilize the relationship for the time being. The structural difference is to remain. Gaffner is still optimistic. Towards the end of his trip, he got a call his farm sold one shipment. We like no trade war because hopefully that levels the playing field and we just want to do business. Eunice Yoon, CBC Business News, Shanghai.

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