After President Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for his summit with China’s Xi Jinping last week, the U.S. and China agreed to move toward lower tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods in each direction. China’s side covers 1,619 U.S. products—stretching from beef and seafood to cosmetics and medical gear—but it leaves out a politically sensitive import: commodity soybeans.
While seed soybeans, soybean flour, and by-products from soybean processing made the cut for tariff relief, the raw soybeans American farmers sell in bulk to China—the ones at the heart of U.S-China farm tensions—did not.
