Trump trade rep changes China soybean purchase timeline, cites ‘discrepancy’
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer testifies during a US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing on 2026 funding priorities, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Dec. 9, 2025.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday that the deadline for China to buy 12 million metric tons of soybeans from American farmers was not the end of December as the White House has said, but the end of the “growing season.”
Greer’s comment at the hearing came on the heels of a report by NBC News showing that the pace of China’s purchase of soybeans in recent weeks was well short of reaching the agreed amount by the end of the calendar year.
China, which in October agreed to end its monthslong boycott of American soybeans amid a trade war, to date has bought only about 3 million metric tons, the trade representative told members of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies subcommittee.
Greer said there was a “discrepancy” in what the White House has described as the deadline and the actual deadline for the purchases to be completed.
The most recent growing season for soybeans ended in November, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
CNBC has asked Greer’s office whether there is a hard or rough deadline for China to reach 12 million metric tons of purchases, as agreed to as part of a trade agreement with President Donald Trump in October.
Greer’s disclosure came in response to a question by Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb.
“There remains anxiety about if and when China will fully follow through on those purchase commitments that were made,” Fischer said.
She noted that the White House fact sheet on the trade deal said China would purchase 12 million metric tons by the end of the calendar year — contradicting recent comments from Greer.
The fact sheet says, “China will purchase at least 12 million metric tons (MMT) of U.S. soybeans during the last two months of 2025 and also purchase at least 25 MMT of U.S. soybeans in each of 2026, 2027, and 2028.”
Greer told Fischer, “It is for this growing season, so, thank you for highlighting that.”
‘”We’ve heard from a couple farmers, they wanted to know about that discrepancy, and it is a discrepancy, it’s through the growing season,” he said.
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