Asia

The Agriculture Department's under secretary for trade, Ted McKinney, said on Tuesday that a recent round of negotiations with China yielded some progress on agricultural issues, though more talks were needed.

The Senate on Monday approved an amendment to a defense bill that would keep the Commerce Department from lifting sanctions on Chinese telecom giant ZTE, but another amendment from Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), requiring congressional approval for the imposition of Section 232 tariffs, still has procedural hurdles to overcome.

President Trump has proposed that the G7 countries eliminate all tariffs, non-tariff barriers and subsidies, he said at a leaders' summit in Canada on Saturday -- later condemning remarks made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “dishonest” and “weak.”

Japan's foreign ministry says President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to prepare for the July meeting when they met at the White House on June 7.

The president says Prime Minster Abe told him “they're buying billions and billions of dollars of additional products of all kinds,” including “military jets, airliners from Boeing, lots of farm products.”

Sens. Cornyn, Crapo, Perdue and Scott were headed to the White House on Tuesday.

With Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross unable to seal commitments from China to purchase agricultural and energy products after meeting with Chinese officials this weekend, sources and analysts see fading chances for a negotiated outcome between the United States and China that would forestall tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods from the Trump administration.

“Prioritize negotiations with China to resolve many longstanding obstacles to U.S. agricultural exports while avoiding mutually destructive tariffs.”

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