China may increase soybean, ethanol, cotton purchases

China has offered to boost purchases of American goods by about $25 billion this year, showing particular willingness to step up imports of crude oil, coal and farm products, according to people briefed on trade talks between the two countries. The Chinese offer comes days after U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross visited Beijing for talks over how to reduce China’s goods-trade surplus and diffuse an escalating trade war.

The offer underscores how commodities have shifted from being seen as a potential casualty of the trade conflict to a possible beneficiary of Beijing’s pledge to import more American goods. U.S. exports to China last year totaled $130 billion while Chinese imports to the U.S. totaled $506 billion. That left a U.S. deficit of more than $375 billion.

Here is a closer look at the commodities that may be affected by trade talks:

Cotton

Cotton represents another major trade flow from the U.S.: exports of raw cotton fetched $5.8 billion last year, government data show. China was the top destination after Vietnam. Chinese futures have eased from a four-year high last week after the country’s cotton association said the government will issue more import quotas to meet demand. It didn’t specify the volume to be issued on top of the annual low-tariff-rate quota of 894,000 tons.

Other U.S. agricultural products that could benefit from increased Chinese imports include sorghum and distillers dried grains, according to Shanghai JC Intelligence Co. Beijing last month scrapped an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probe into purchases of American sorghum, a trade worth almost $1 billion in 2017.