Soybeans, carried as ballast on the return voyage from Asia to America some 200 years ago, have become a ballast of China-US agricultural trade.
Susan Thornton, former acting US assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, offered the historical footnote to a room where "ballast" had already become the word of the day.
"So that kind of makes this word ballast even more, I think, essential for our US-China agricultural trade," she told the gathering, organized by the US Soybean Export Council, or USSEC, during its annual Soy Connext conference held in Chicago on Friday.
The event drew US and Chinese officials, US soy industry leaders, and a Chinese delegation of traders and representatives from oil crushing, food and feed companies.
Chinese Consul General in Chicago Wang Baodong said soybeans have served for many years "as an important bridge in China-US agricultural cooperation, and the soybean trade has been a ballast of the broader part for economic and trade relationship".
