Across the vast United States, soybean farmers caught in the crossfire of the US-China trade war hoped for a deal on the crop when US President Donald Trump met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

There was optimism after the two presidents met in Busan, South Korea, in October, when China committed to increased soybean purchases.

This time, however, Trump left Beijing without any concrete agricultural announcements, much less one about US farmers’ biggest export.

Instead, a general commitment about US agricultural products surfaced two days later in a brief White House readout, leaving some US farmers wary over the lack of detail despite welcoming the renewed pledge.

China has now agreed to purchase at least US$17 billion per year of US agricultural products from 2026 through 2028, in addition to the soybean purchase commitments that it made in October 2025, the White House statement read.

“We want to make sure that there is a commitment that’s got some teeth in it,” said Darin Johnson, a fourth-generation corn and soybean farmer from Minnesota, after the readout came out.