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Donald Trump said Washington may end certain trade ties with China, including cooking oil imports, in retaliation for Beijing reducing US soybean purchases.
A file photo of US President Donald Trump (AP)
Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States was considering terminating some trade with China, along with business having to do with cooking oil, as it accused the country of not buying soyabeans from Washington “purposefully”.
The US President called China’s alleged act “economically hostile” and said his country could easily produce cooking oil itself.
“I believe that China purposefully not buying our Soybeans, and causing difficulty for our Soybean Farmers, is an Economically Hostile Act,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social handle.
“We are considering terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil, and other elements of Trade, as retribution,” he added.
“As an example, we can easily produce Cooking Oil ourselves, we don’t need to purchase it from China,” the US President mentioned.
Trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies have reignited in Trump’s second presidency, with tit-for-tat duties reaching triple-digit levels at one point.
They have been at odds over issues like trade tariffs, technology, human rights, the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical matters such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Ukraine.
China has sharply reduced US soybean purchases, which Trump has called a negotiation tactic.
The US President said this month he hopes to discuss soybeans with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, while also warning the US may halt a large share of imports from China.
China is the world’s largest buyer of soybeans. However, it has reduced its purchases in recent months in favour of sourcing from Brazil and Argentina amid tariff and trade disputes.
Trump has targeted China with a cascade of tariff orders on billions of dollars of imported goods that he says are aimed at narrowing a wide trade deficit, bringing back lost manufacturing and crippling the fentanyl trade.
However, hours before Trump’s Truth Social post, he had appeared to soothe rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.
“We have a fair relationship with China, and I think it’ll be fine. And if it’s not, that’s okay too,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
On Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, during an interview with the Financial Times, had slammed Beijing, accusing it of seeking to harm the global economy following China’s sweeping new export controls in the strategic field of rare earths.
Trump, in turn, maintained that Washington has “to be careful with China.”
“I have a great relationship with President Xi (Jinping), but sometimes it gets testy, because China likes to take advantage of people,” Trump said.
“Where the punches are thrown, you got to put up the blocks,” he had said.
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Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
October 15, 2025, 06:46 IST
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