China will buy more American farm goods only if Washington and Beijing put their reciprocal tariff cut agreement into effect, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday, describing the pending arrangement as a "$30 billion-for-$30 billion" deal. The condition puts a price on a purchase pledge that is running well behind schedule outside soybeans.

For investors in Asia, the statement matters for two reasons. It shows that the trade truce between the world's two largest economies still rests on unfinished paperwork, and it lands days before a separate deadline: China's one-year suspension of its sweeping rare earth export controls is due to expire on Nov. 10, with no formal extension notice published as of Thursday.

China's commerce ministry sets terms on farm buying

Ministry spokesperson Huang Ling said Beijing was willing to expand imports of U.S. agricultural products once both sides implement the reciprocal tariff reductions, according to Reuters. After Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump met in Washington in September, the two governments proposed a $60 billion package of tariff cuts, including about $17 billion of U.S. farm goods that China imported in 2024. The plan has not been finalized, and an agricultural working group is expected to meet before the end of the year, Reuters reported.

The White House said in May that China had agreed to buy $17 billion of U.S. farm goods each year from 2026, on top of an earlier soybean commitment made in October 2025. When that clock started is unclear. The White House has not said whether it began in May or begins only once China's tariff cuts are in place, which leaves open whether Beijing is behind on its promise at all.

At the time, China's Ministry of Commerce did not confirm the $17 billion figure. It said only that the two sides had reached consensus on non-tariff barriers and market access for some farm products, according to a Global Times account of the ministry's May statement. The one figure Beijing did state was a plan for its aviation industry to import 200 Boeing aircraft.

Soybeans on track, everything else lagging

The numbers show why Beijing is tying new buying to tariff relief. China is on course to meet its soybean target, but it bought only $7.2 billion of other U.S. farm products, such as meat and corn, from January to September, according to a Reuters analysis of Chinese customs data published on Nov. 2. That was the lowest total for those nine months since 2019, putting non-soybean purchases on track for a seven-year low.

Corn shows the gap. China imported $5.6 billion of U.S. corn at the 2021 peak, about 20 million metric tons. COFCO Futures expects China to take about 900,000 tons of U.S. corn in the 2026/27 season, Reuters reported. U.S. sorghum sales have dried up over the past four months, after about 3.7 million tons were shipped through August, while Brazil, which gained access to China in September 2025, has shipped 1.7 million tons this year.

Meat is also slow. China renewed licenses for more than 400 U.S. beef plants in May, but about half of U.S. fed-cattle slaughter capacity remains ineligible to ship, and pork and chicken are in oversupply in China. Traders told Reuters that lower tariffs would be needed before large-scale purchases make commercial sense. One consultant told the news agency that reaching $17 billion outside soybeans would be hard without "directed, non-market, purchases" by state buyers, the approach Beijing already uses for soybeans.

Rare earth suspension runs to Nov. 10

The farm question sits alongside a more pressing date for manufacturers. On Oct. 9, 2025, China's Ministry of Commerce issued four notices tightening controls on medium and heavy rare earths, rare earth equipment and materials, superhard materials, and lithium batteries and synthetic graphite anode materials, along with rules covering overseas rare earth items and technologies. On Nov. 7, 2025, the ministry suspended those measures until Nov. 10, 2026, Global Times reported at the time.

The broader truce was extended in late September to Jan. 10, 2027. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that extension covers China's rare earth controls, but China has yet to publish a formal notice, The Motley Fool reported on Thursday. Capital Times has explained the terms of the truce and what happens if it lapses.

Shares of U.S. rare earth producers fell on Wednesday. MP Materials closed down 5.08% at $35.91 and USA Rare Earth fell 5.86% to $8.20, according to the same report. China controls about 70% of rare earth extraction and 90% of processing, the report said, which is why any gap in the suspension would reach automakers and electronics makers across Asia. Chinese magnet shipments had already climbed to a 2026 high in September as licensing eased.

The next markers are a Ministry of Commerce notice on the rare earth suspension before Tuesday, Nov. 10, and the agricultural working group meeting due before year-end, where the $30 billion tariff swap would have to be settled.