Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 1/30/20

Perdue on Wednesday said he's closely monitoring the deadly virus and its potential to hurt Beijing's ability to follow through on its commitment to buy huge sums of U.S. farm goods over the next two years, your host reports.

"It obviously is going to have some ramifications economy-wide, which we hope will not inhibit the purchase goal that we have for this year," he told reporters on a conference call. "The honest answer is, we just don't know yet, but we're hoping for a very quick conclusion."

The stakes: China has pledged to buy some $40 billion in U.S. ag products in 2020 and 2021, each. Trade analysts have already questioned whether such large purchases are possible, given supply and demand limitations and global trade rules. Sustained fallout from the coronavirus would represent a starker obstacle to those goals.

More from Perdue: The USDA chief, who was in Rome as part of his tour through Europe this week, also laid out what the Trump administration is seeking in a U.S.-EU trade deal — including staving off Europe's geographical protections for foods like parmesan and feta cheese.