WASHINGTON D.C. -- A trade deal with China signed by President Trump Wednesday is expected to greatly increase the amount of U.S. agricultural imports.
Prior to the Phase One agreement, $25 billion of China's $120 billion in agricultural imports came from the U.S.
"The premise is that we will be competitive for that $120 billion. There's real belief and understanding that we'll have $40 billion of that--it'll come from the United States each of the next couple of years" says U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation and former Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey.
He says it's now a bit of "wait-and-see" as to exactly when China will start buying U.S. products--especially soybeans.
"We know it takes a little while, we're not always going to know. There's certainly interest from the Chinese side to not have our markets go crazy. We need to be competitive. They're not interested in paying more" Northey says.
Northey says Phase Two of the China trade deal could involve expanded protections for international agriculture and technology patents.
"Some of those intellectual property issues--we know we've had real tensions. From corn seed, to ag equipment, to certainly all the other technology pieces outside of agriculture as well" he says.
Northey says there's no specific time frame on formalizing the Phase Two agreement.