Ag Trade Issues: EU and China

As the U.S. and European Union trade negotiations unfold, the two sides have competing perspectives over what will be discussed:  The U.S. has included agriculture in its Summary of Specific Negotiating Objectives, while the EU has not.  Despite the discord, recent trade data indicates that the EU has purchased an increasing amount of U.S. soybeans.  “Trump boasted of his verbal agreement with leaders of the European Union, (‘we’re starting the documents,’ Trump said as an aside), that would move toward the elimination of trade barriers. The Register article quoted President Tump as saying: “We just opened up Europe for you farmers.  You’re not going to be too angry with Trump, I can tell you.” However, The Wall Street Journal reported on July 27th that, “While Mr. Trump told an Iowa crowd [July 26th] that ‘we just opened up Europe for you farmers,’ officials in Brussels later said he did no such thing.”