Wendong Zhang, assistant professor, was quoted in a Jan. 14 story, "Agriculture Hopes For A Win As US And China Prepare To Sign Phase One Trade Deal," on KCUR's Up to Date.
The Phase One deal will rescind some, but not all, of the tariffs and calls upon China to increase its imports. But for now, most details of the agreement have not been made public and Wendong Zhang, an Iowa State University economist, says the Chinese have not been particularly forthcoming with what they’re agreeing to.
“Even if we get $50 billion for two years, that will be [a significant] improvement over what we have now,” he said. “So when you look at the market, there is a lot of hope that the Phase One deal, although it doesn’t address the bulk of the trade war, addresses most of the concerns the agricultural community has.”
Zhang was also quoted in a Jan. 16 Daily Iowan story, "Joni Ernst praises trade agreements ahead of U.S. Senate vote on USMCA."
Wendong Zhang, an assistant professor of economics at Iowa State University, said the agricultural provisions in the USMCA are not significantly different than they were under NAFTA, but signing it will help stabilize business between the countries.
“Everyone is anxious to get it passed, return to business as usual in some way,” he said.
And he commented on the China-U.S. Trade Agreement:
“The market currently still doesn’t see a whole lot of concrete details how this potentially could be happening because essentially the next year we’re talking about almost doubling the highest watermark of the agricultural export,” Zhang said.
Still, Zhang said exports to China would be likely the highest in 10-15 years, even if only half the promised exports are made.