CHICAGO/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that soybeans would be a major topic of discussion when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in four weeks.
“The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Chinese importers have not yet bought soybeans from the autumn US harvest during the trade war between Washington and Beijing, costing US farmers billions of dollars in lost sales.
Autumn is the prime marketing season for US soybeans as farmers bring in fresh crops from their fields. However, China, the world’s top soybean importer, has turned to South America for supplies instead, pressuring US soybean prices.
US Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, a Republican, said he did not think there was a specific timeline for China to resume purchases of US soy following a briefing on Tuesday with US Ambassador to China David Perdue.
“He didn’t indicate to me sales are imminent,” Hoeven said in an interview. “The discussion was more, we need to keep the pressure on until we get sales and in the meantime be supportive of our farmers.”
In his post, Trump repeated a promise to use proceeds from tariff revenues to help farmers.
Last month, Trump said he and Xi agreed during a call to meet face-to-face in South Korea to discuss a trade conflict that has kept the countries bitterly at odds. The two leaders are set to meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum during the last week of October in Gyeongju, South Korea.
Trump also said he would visit China early next year and that Xi would come to the US at a later date.
Efforts by the countries to lower trade tensions have led to expectations that China could direct more agriculture purchases to the US as part of a deal with Trump.
“Right now, they’re buying from South America and using that to try to put pressure on us in these trade negotiations,” Hoeven said.
In 2020, during Trump’s first term in office, he signed a trade deal with China that included promises to buy tens of billions of dollars in US agricultural products while expanding US access to Chinese agriculture markets.
China never met its agreed purchase targets under the deal, and it has sought to diversify its food sources.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump says China’s Xi using soy as negotiation tactic ahead of talks
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Trump says China’s Xi using soy as negotiation tactic ahead of talks
- Chinese importers have not yet bought soybeans from the autumn US harvest during the trade war between Washington and Beijing, costing US farmers billions of dollars in lost sales
Magnitude 7.5 quake in northern Japan injures 23 people and triggers a 2-foot tsunami
- A tsunami of up to 70 centimeters (2 feet, 4 inches) was measured in Kuji port in Iwate prefecture, just south of Aomori, and tsunami levels of up to 50 centimeters struck other coastal communities in the region, the Japan Meteorological Agency said
TOKYO: A powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck off northern Japan late Monday, injuring 23 people and triggering a tsunami in Pacific coast communities, officials said. Authorities warned of possible aftershocks and an increased risk of a megaquake.
The Japanese government was still assessing damages from the tsunami and late-evening quake, which struck at about 11:15 p.m. in the Pacific Ocean, around 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the coast of Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of Japan’s main Honshu island.
“I’ve never experienced such a big shaking,” convenience store owner Nobuo Yamada told the public broadcaster NHK in the Aomori prefecture town of Hachinohe, adding that “luckily” power lines were still operating in his area.
A tsunami of up to 70 centimeters (2 feet, 4 inches) was measured in Kuji port in Iwate prefecture, just south of Aomori, and tsunami levels of up to 50 centimeters struck other coastal communities in the region, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 23 people were injured, including one seriously. Most of them were hit by falling objects, NHK reported, adding that several people were injured in a hotel in Hachinohe and a man in Tohoku was slightly hurt when his car fell into a hole.
The meteorological agency reported the quake’s magnitude as 7.5, down from its earlier estimate of 7.6. It issued an alert for potential tsunami surges of up to 3 meters (10 feet) in some areas and later downgraded to an advisory.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara urged residents to go to higher ground or seek shelter until adviseries were lifted. He said about 800 homes were without electricity, and that the Shinkansen bullet trains and some local lines were suspended in parts of the region.
Nuclear power plants in the region were conducting safety checks, Kihara said. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said about 450 liters (118 gallons) of water spilled from a spent fuel cooling area at the Rokkasho fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori, but that its water level remained within the normal range and there was no safety concern.
About 480 residents were taking shelter at the Hachinohe Air Base, and 18 defense helicopters were mobilized for a damage assessment, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said.
About 200 passengers were stranded for the night at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, NHK reported.
The meteorological agency issued a caution about possible aftershocks in the coming days. It said there is a slight increase in risk of a magnitude 8-level quake and possible tsunami occurring along Japan’s northeastern coast from Chiba, just east of Tokyo, to Hokkaido. The agency urged residents in 182 municipalities in the area to monitor their emergency preparedness in the coming week.
Satoshi Kato, a vice principal of a public high school in Hachinohe, told NHK that he was at home when the quake struck, and that glasses and bowls fell and smashed into shards on the floor.
Kato said he drove to the school because it was designated an evacuation center, and on the way he encountered traffic jams and car accidents as panicked people tried to flee. Nobody had yet come to the school to take shelter, he said.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in brief comments to reporters that the government set up an emergency task force to urgently assess the extent of damage. “We are putting people’s lives first and doing everything we can,” she said.
Later, she urged residents in the region to pay attention to the latest information from local municipalities. “Please be prepared so you can immediately evacuate as soon as you feel a tremor.”
The quake struck about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Hachinohe, and about 50 kilometers (30 miles) below the sea surface, the meteorological agency said.
It was just north of the Japanese coast that suffered the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in 2011 that killed nearly 20,000 people and destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
“You need to prepare, assuming that a disaster like that could happen again,” the meteorological agency’s earthquake and volcano division official Satoshi Harada said.
At 6:20 a.m. on Tuesday morning, authorities lifted all tsunami adviseries for the Pacific coastline in northern Japan, NHK said.
The US Geological Survey reported another earthquake, with a magnitude 5.1, early on Tuesday, about 122 kilometers (76 miles) south of Honcho, at a depth of 35 kilometers. No other details were immediately available.
