In late February, with American and Chinese diplomats enmeshed in trade talks a week before a since-extended deadline, a top US agriculture official explained what he hoped would result from a deal.
“I think we’ll see free, fair and reciprocal trade,” Ted McKinney, undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, told reporters.
If free trade is the goal, the White House is taking a roundabout route. As Donald Trump raised tariffs to 25 per cent on $200bn worth of Chinese imports last week, the US president declared he would use the proceeds to buy up surplus agricultural products and ship them to “starving countries” as humanitarian aid. The US agriculture department soon announced it was readying a plan.
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