Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett said Sunday he, too, has “felt pain” from China refusing to buy U.S.-grown soybeans during a trade conflict with President Donald Trump because “I’m actually a soybean farmer.”
Bessent’s comment came during an interview with ABC News’ “This Week,” where he said that trade negotiations with China in the past two days had led to a “substantial framework” that he believed would alleviate American soybean farmers’ concerns about the boycott.
Trump is set to meet later this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
Bessent, a former hedge fund executive whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be around $600 million, was asked about the soybean boycotts on “This Week” host Martha Raddatz, who noted that “American farmers have really suffered.”
China in 2023 and 2024 bought more than half of the soybeans grown in the U.S., accounting for nearly $12.8 billion in 2024.
But after Trump ignited a trade war with Beijing earlier this year, China stopped buying soybeans.
“Do you see a real light at the end of the tunnel there, they may allow soybeans again?” Raddetz asked.
Bessent replied, “Martha, in case you don’t know it, I’m actually a soybean farmer, so I have felt this pain, too.”
Bessent’s government financial disclosure shows that he owns soybean and corn farmland in North Dakota that has an estimated worth of between $5 million and $25 million.
On that disclosure, Bessent said the farmland generates between $100,000 and $1 million in rental income for him annually.
The Treasury secretary told Raddatz on Sunday, “I think think we have addressed the farmer’s concerns, and I’m not going to get ahead of the president, but I believe when the announcement of the deal with China is made public, that our soybean farmers will feel very good about what’s going on both for this season and the coming seasons for several years.”