It has been over a year since the trade talks and increased tariffs between the United States and China started, but is there an end in sight? One Greene County resident thinks so.

Iowa Soybean Association President-Elect and Rippey farmer Tim Bardole recently returned from trips to China and Washington D.C. where he talked with some officials directly related to the negotiation process. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio he spoke with the US Department of Agriculture Undersecretaries, including Under Secretary Bill Northey and US Trade Representative Chief Agricultural Negotiator Gregg Doud. Bardole says following those conversations, the majority of a new agreement with China is basically done, with some details to be ironed out.

“It’s the hard stuff. The ag stuff, it was pretty well complete. It’s some of the intellectual property stuff and how the agreement will be policed and what repercussions if you don’t follow the agreement, that kind of stuff is what they said they are working on.”

In China Bardole had ten meetings in three cities in four days. One of those meetings was with US Ambassador to China Terry Branstad. Branstad’s comments to Bardole were that he didn’t see an option for failure with the new agreement. Bardole says Branstad believed if the agreement doesn’t happen it would not only be devastating to the Chinese economy and hurt the US, but the world economy would be devastated as well.  Bardole explains why it’s taking so long to get a new, historic trade agreement put together between the two countries.

“There’s never been an agreement that will be as complicated and as broad as the agreement that they are working on. When you look at the different structures of the US government and economy compared to China, that just complicates things.”

Bardole is confident that the agreement will be finalized within the next two months.