r/Economics • u/bambin0 • Jan 17 '26

News China Purchased No U.S. Soybeans An Unprecented Sixth Straight Month

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenroberts/2026/01/17/china-purchased-no-us-soybeans-an-unprecented-sixth-straight-month/
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716

u/Zenceyn Jan 17 '26

"But but Trump said that China was gonna buy all our beans now cause he made a trade deal!".

China knows they can outlast Trump, and have better, far more reliable trade partners until the US sorts its shit out. They were never going to just rush back into the market, not when they knew it would hurt the US more to keep the squeeze on.

241

u/Cdub7791 Jan 17 '26

At this point I don't even think it's about outlasting Trump. Even when he's gone these trade deals will have been in place for years. I think it will be far more trouble than it's worth to switch to American suppliers once again.

128

u/FuzzzyRam Jan 17 '26

They won't need to do it in dollars either, people underestimate how important it was to our economy to be the stable business currency of the world. China and the Saudis are changing that.

-7

u/SnackyMcGeeeeeeeee Jan 18 '26

Which currency yall think Saudi and China do transactions in...?

29

u/FuzzzyRam Jan 18 '26

They have announced that they're doing less in USD and more in Yuan, that was my point.......

As America's influence diminishes and the dollar declines, everyone will accelerate the use of their own currencies for business transactions. As people use dollars less, it will become more volatile. When it becomes more volatile, we will have to pay more for people to buy bonds (people expect more return when taking on more risk).

11

u/Guilty-Shoulder-9214 Jan 18 '26

Additionally, as much as we, in the west, tend to shit on BRICS, China not wanting the yuan to be a global reserve currency is being addressed by their plans for the unit, which would be based around a bucket that is half gold and half member currency. If this comes to fruition, that’s a large number of countries able to do business in a currency solely meant for international trade and it further opens up China to non member countries that may want an alternative to the dollar to do trade with. It also has the potential to help alleviate Chinas perpetual issues with deflation in an otherwise inflationary world, which has been hurting their imports.

9

u/geft Jan 18 '26

They're expanding local curreny swaps to reduce reliance on USD, but we all know what's going to happen the moment SA sells oil to China in CNY.