U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gestures while standing near U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent onboard Air Force One while on their way to Tokyo, Japan, for the second stop on his Asia tour, October 27, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
During a late October appearance on right-wing Fox Business, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policy — claiming that China is making a major purchase from the United States because of his steep new tariffs. But according to journalist James Surowiecki, Trump has created a problem without offering a real solution.
Bessent told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo, "I'm going to break the news here," before heralding the "massive amount of agriculture purchases that the Chinese are going to be doing."
Bessent told Bartiromo, "The Chinese have agreed to buy 2 million metric tons of soybeans during this season. ... And then, for the next three years, they're going to be buying a minimum of 25 million metric tons per annum for the next three years. ... Our great soybean farmers who the Chinese used as political pawns — that's off the table."
American soybean farmers, Bessent added, will "prosper for years to come."
But Surowiecki, known for his work for The Atlantic and Fast Company, found Bessent's comments highly problematic.
In an October 30 post on X, formerly Twitter, Surowiecki wrote, "This is Trump mitigating — not even solving — a problem he created. China was buying more than 30 million tons of soybeans/year from the U.S. when Trump first took office. His first trade war with China cratered that, with Brazil taking market share, and that problem got only worse with Trump's 2nd trade war. Chinese demand for soybeans is much greater than it was in 2017. But Chinese purchases of US soybeans, even after this deal, will be much less than they were in 2017. That's because of Trump."