In response to the Trump administration projecting that China will only purchase $13 billion — not the $50 billion Trump promised — in U.S. agriculture products this year, DNC Deputy War Room Director Daniel Wessel released the following statement:

“Trump promised to get tough on China, but he got played instead. After losing the trade war he started, Trump settled for a deal that failed to protect American workers and farmers while securing major concessions for China. And he was so eager to secure his failed trade deal that he let China off the hook for its coverup of the pandemic, which has cost over 100,000 American lives and wreaked havoc on our economy. Now, his own administration confirms that China isn’t even living up to the meager agreement to purchase U.S. farm goods. It’s clear that Trump’s record on China has been a complete failure and Americans are paying the price with their lives and livelihoods.”

Trump’s own administration forecasts that China won’t come close to purchasing the $50 billion in U.S. agriculture that Trump promised.

USDA Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade: “The export forecast for China is lowered $1.0 billion from February to $13.0 billion, in part due to lower forecast volumes and unit values for soybean and cotton.”

TRUMP: “We also signed a terrific new trade agreement with China that will boost American agriculture by $50 billion every year, and many other businesses like manufacturing, banking, finance, overall $250 billion.”

China is way behind pace for meeting its commitments, and bought the least amount of U.S. farm product in over a decade though the first quarter.

Bloomberg: “China bought just $3.35 billion in American agricultural products in the first three months of the year, the lowest for that period since 2007, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

Axios: “China is nowhere near meeting the ‘phase 1’ trade agreement”

Reuters:  “U.S. goods exports here to China in the first quarter were down $4 billion from the trade war-damaged levels a year earlier, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The Peterson Institute of International Economics estimates here that during the first quarter, China made only about 40% of the purchases it needed to stay on target for a first-year increase of $77 billion over 2017 levels, implying an extremely steep climb in the second half.”

Trump’s trade deal is failing, but since he did so much damage with his trade policies to secure a deal, he may have no choice but to stick with it.

Reuters: “U.S. President Donald Trump has little choice but to stick with his Phase 1 China trade deal for now despite his anger at Beijing over the coronavirus pandemic, new Hong Kong security rules, and dwindling hopes China can meet U.S. goods purchase targets, people familiar with his administration’s deliberations say. The U.S.-China trade negotiations took more than two years, heaped tariffs on $370 billion of Chinese products, whipsawed financial markets and dimmed global growth prospects well before the coronavirus outbreak crushed them.”