Jonathan Ernst/Reuters US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping
- China has offered to purchase close to $70 billion worth of US good over the next year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
- The deal would include purchases of soybeans, corn, natural gas, crude oil, coal, and more.
- It could help alleviate some of the trade tensions between the Trump administration and China.
China has floated a massive purchase of US goods, according to a new report, in an effort to curb burgeoning trade tensions with President Donald Trump's administration.
According to Lingling Wei and Bob Davis at The Wall Street Journal, Chinese officials offered to purchase close to $70 billion worth of American goods during a meeting with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross last weekend.
The purchases of US agricultural and energy products are designed to help alleviate some of the simmering trade tensions between the two countries.
China will purchase more US soybeans, corn, natural gas, crude oil, coal, and more, according to the Journal.
The moves comes after a series of back-and-forth talks between the US delegation and Chinese officials.
An earlier preliminary deal between the US and Chinese delegations also featured a planned Chinese purchase of US goods, along with a US promise to delay tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. The deal was seen as a turning point after tit-for-tat tariffs appeared to push the US and China close to a trade war.
But the Trump administration ramped up tensions against when it announced that it planned to move forward with the tariffs, pending further discussions with the Chinese.
According to the Journal, China stressed that the purchases would be void if the Trump administration went forward with the tariffs. That ultimatum did not play well with Ross and the other members of the Trump team.
Buying up US goods could help to diminish the size of the US-China trade imbalance. Trump requested that China reduce the trade deficit - which totaled roughly $375 billion in 2017 - by $200 billion. According to the Journal, Chinese officials believe that the purchases could go a long way to meeting that demand.