China removes levy on some US farm goods, lifts export curbs

China announced it will remove retaliatory tariffs on some US farm products and lift export controls on an array of American firms, after Washington halved its fentanyl-related levies on Chinese goods.

The country's finance ministry confirmed in a Wednesday notice it would end tariffs imposed March 4 on soybeans and other US agricultural products including corn, wheat, sorghum and chicken. That move - to take effect November 10 - was previously flagged in a White House fact sheet.

Hours later, the commerce ministry said it would remove 15 American firms from an export control list while taking 10 other US companies off its unreliable entity list. Beijing will also scrap a ban on Illumina's exports of its DNA sequencer to China.

The moves are part of a broader trade pact between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping that's set to last one year and has, for now, stabilised a turbulent relationship. Before their summit in South Korea last week, the two leaders had been locked in a cycle of tit-for-tat actions that threatened to upended global trade.

Helping to cement that ceasefire, Trump on Tuesday signed a pair of executive orders that formalised lowering fentanyl-related levies on Chinese exports and extending a reprieve on higher US reciprocal tariffs. The detente between the world's biggest economies has boosted optimism about a revival in agricultural trade between the two nations, helping to push up global grain prices. Chicago soybean futures rose as much as 1% in Asian hours on Wednesday.