China renews import permits for US beef plants as Xi, Trump meet
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
The beef import licence renewals come as President Donald Trump meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the first visit by a sitting American leader in nearly a decade.
PHOTO: EPA
Follow our live coverage here.
BEIJING – China has renewed import licences for hundreds of US beef plants, reviving trade in the meat as the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies meet in Beijing to stabilise commercial and geopolitical relations.
The permits were renewed on May 14 and are usually valid for five years, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media.
China’s Customs office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Beijing in 2025 allowed import authorisations for hundreds of US meat plants to lapse after President Donald Trump waged an aggressive tariff war aimed at reordering global trade in America’s favour.
That effectively tanked the trade, and US shipments of beef and related products to China dropped about 67 per cent between 2024 and 2025, while total exports in 2025 fell 12 per cent, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
The latest renewals come as Mr Trump meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the first visit by a sitting American leader in nearly a decade, and is an early positive signal on what more could come out of the closely watched summit.
The two sides are expected to agree on reviving trade in other agricultural items, like China’s purchases of American corn and soya beans.
China’s domestic meat producers have been grappling with oversupply and weakening consumption, prompting Beijing to place quotas on beef imports as it seeks to protect the local industry. That has dealt a blow to Brazil, which is already close to reaching its annual quota, and other major shippers, including Australia and Argentina.
The US, in the meantime, has not used much of its allocations in China. The permit renewals for its plants could pave the way for US supplies to take a larger share of the world’s biggest beef market going forward.
China is also a key destination for organ meats for which there is little demand in the US, and the loss of those buyers has caused average prices for those products to drop nearly 40 per cent, according to the Meat Institute, a Washington-based industry group.
That has lowered the value of cattle carcasses for US meatpackers, who are already losing money on each head of cattle they process amid a severe shortage of the animals. BLOOMBERG
