China lifts ban on U.S. poultry, but trade talks still rocky

Yesterday brought good and bad news about trade talks between the U.S. and China.

The good news: China agreed to lift its ban on imports of U.S. poultry, in return for the U.S. allowing sales of cooked poultry processed in China. Jim Spencer reports for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, "China ranked as the state's second-largest foreign market for turkeys and its third-largest export market for all poultry before January 2015, when the Chinese banned the purchase of U.S. birds after an outbreak of avian flu."

The bad news: The U.S. and China are having a hard time agreeing on how much China should commit to in terms of buying U.S. agricultural products. President Trump has said that China agreed to buy up to $50 billion of soybeans, pork, and other U.S. farm products, "but China is leery of putting a numerical commitment in the text of an agreement, according to people familiar with the matter," The Wall Street Journal reports. "Beijing wants to avoid cutting a deal that looks more favorable to the U.S. than to China, some of the people said, and also wants to have flexibility within the agreement should trade tensions escalate again. 'We can always stop the purchases if things get worse again,' said one Chinese official." The sides are also far apart on intellectual property issues.