WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said he was considering terminating some trade ties with China, singling out cooking oil even though traders and analysts said such shipments have already spent the past year plummeting. "I believe that China purposefully not buying our Soybeans, and causing difficulty for our Soybean Farmers, is an Economically Hostile Act. We are considering terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil, and other elements of Trade, as retribution," Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday. "As an example, we can easily produce Cooking Oil ourselves, we don't need to purchase it from China." The U.S. was China's top market for used cooking oil (UCO), importing a record 1.27 million metric tons worth $1.1 billion in 2024. But after China cut tax rebates late last year and the U.S. imposed tariffs on Chinese goods this year, imports plunged 65% in January-August to 290,690 tons, or $286.7 million. As such, Trump's comments have had "minimal" impact on the market, two UCO traders in China said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media. "The U.S. pretty much stopped buying from China anyway, so the impact is as empty as his threats," said one of the traders, who deals with the U.S. market. "Domestic producers are now mainly taking orders for Europe and are no longer considering the U.S. market," said the other. UCO trade is small compared with that of soybeans. China imported 22.13 million tons of U.S. soybeans last year, valued at $12 billion. "Used cooking oil is a niche trade, but it shows how the Trump Administration is standing up for American farmers, just as China shifts its agricultural purchases towards other suppliers," said senior analyst Chim Lee at the Economist Intelligence Unit. China is the world's largest buyer of soybeans. In recent months it has slashed purchases of U.S. soybeans in favor of Brazilian and Argentine produce. Trump has called the shift a negotiation tactic. He said this month he hoped to discuss soybeans with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping while also saying the U.S. may halt a large share of imports from China. The U.S. president has targeted China with a cascade of tariff orders on billions of dollars worth of imported goods that he said is aimed at narrowing a trade deficit, bringing back lost manufacturing and crippling the trade in fentanyl. The U.S. and China have had strained ties for years, especially with Trump in office. They have been at odds over issues including technology, human rights, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical matters involving Hong Kong, Taiwan and Ukraine. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, Ella Cao and Joe Cash in Beijing and Aizhu Chen in Singapore; Editing by Ismail Shakil and Christopher Cushing)
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