REUTERS, Singapore/Beijing

China has booked two cargoes of US wheat following last week’s meeting between the countries’ leaders, traders said on Thursday, the first such purchases since October last year, signalling easing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Investors welcomed the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, which helped ease concerns over the trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies that had disrupted flows of goods including key agricultural products.

Beijing on Wednesday announced that from November 10 it would scrap tariffs that it had announced on March 4 for some US agricultural goods. The move includes removing a 15 percent duty on US wheat.

The purchases of around 120,000 metric tons for December shipment include one cargo of US soft white wheat and one of spring wheat, the sources said.

“This is more of China showing commitment to buy US grains as US wheat is not the cheapest wheat around,” said one Singapore-based grains trader who has direct knowledge of these deals. “So it is more of political move to buy these cargoes.”

China, the top market for US farmers, has turned its vast appetite for US crops into a powerful trade war bargaining chip.