American agriculture witnessed a momentous occasion today when President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Lui He signed a Phase I trade agreement with China.  The deal addresses structural barriers to trade and supports a large expansion of U.S. food, agriculture, and seafood product exports.

The deal boasts Chinese purchases of at least $40 billion of U.S. food, agricultural, and seafood products annually for a total of $80 billion over the next two years.  Also, an agriculture fact sheet released by the White House (found here) claims China will strive to import an additional $5 billion per year over the next two years.

We will include a comprehensive overview of the deal in Friday’s Weekly Newsletter.  In the meantime, view the press conference here and access the agriculture fact sheet here.

Today we also had a good indication from USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue that the third tranche of Market Facilitation Program 2.0 payments will be made.  AgriPulse reports Secretary Perdue said he is not expecting another round of Market Facilitation Program payments (MFP 3.0), “but obviously, we’ve got a third tranche of 2019 payments expecting to go out.” 

On a final positive note, the Senate is slated to pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement tomorrow.  All seven committees with jurisdiction over the bill have approved it in an expedited manner with overwhelming bipartisan support.