Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 9/11/19

Mnuchin said China's treatment of U.S. farmers will be the Trump administration's top priority in the coming weeks as officials from each nation meet for the latest round of trade negotiations, reports Pro Trade's Adam Behsudi. "I can tell you that's top of the agenda for the conversations we are having this month," he said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday.

POLITICO reported last week that China offered to purchase a modest amount of U.S. commodities if Trump eases restrictions on the blacklisted Chinese tech firm Huawei and postpones another round of escalating tariffs set for Oct. 1.

Beijing is preparing to make good on that offer, per our partners at the South China Morning Post. A source familiar with the situation said staffers were discussing the text of a deal that would be reviewed when Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He meets Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington next month.

All about ag: Trump has desperately pushed Beijing to ramp up its purchases of U.S. farm goods. In recent months, agriculture has drawn much of the public attention in the negotiations — even though bigger structural issues like forced technology transfers and intellectual property protections were at the heart of the impasse that led talks to fall apart in May.

"Everyone knows that there is little trust on either side, and deals over soybeans won't change that," said Scott Kennedy, senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

China is facing its own domestic agriculture problems: With African swine fever wiping out millions of Chinese hogs, officials are scrambling to get a handle on soaring pork prices, which have weighed on the world's second-largest economy. Pork prices were almost 50 percent higher in August than compared to a year earlier.

Hog farming is a major national industry, with pigmeat a staple of Chinese cuisine. The issue has even eclipsed the trade war in Chinese media coverage, the SCMP reports.