China Cancels U.S. Pork, Buys Few Soybeans as Trade War Simmers

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese buyers canceled a purchase of 3,247 metric tons of American pork and bought only limited amounts of soybeans, cotton and sorghum last week, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

The results, reported Thursday, confirmed expectations that the world’s biggest importer of commodities would pull back from buying American products as a result of China’s escalating clash with the U.S. over trade.

June lean hog futures slumped as much as 1.7% to 90.175 cents per pound in Chicago after the USDA data was released. China’s pork cancellation was the biggest since the week ended April 5, 2018 -- near the time when U.S. President Donald Trump first announced plans to impose tariffs on some U.S. imports of Chinese goods.

The top global buyer of soybeans bought only 5,100 tons, out of combined net sales of 674,300 tons.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Hirtzer in Chicago at mhirtzer@bloomberg.net;Dominic Carey in Washington at dcarey5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net, Reg Gale, Joe Carroll

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