CHICAGO — Some 20-odd Chinese and US enterprises on Thursday signed agricultural transaction contracts worth $5.012 billion, under which Chinese enterprises will import 12.53 million metric tons of soybean and 371 tons of pork and beef from the US companies.

Nearly 100 officials and enterprise representatives from China and the United States attended the signing ceremony held in Des Moines, Iowa.

Addressing the ceremony, Counselor for Science and Technology with Chinese Consulate in Chicago Xu Hai said Chinese and US presidents have agreed in their first meeting in April this year to carry out the "the 100-Day Action Plan" under the framework of the US-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue (CED), this activity (contract signing) "can be taken as one of the concrete measures that materialize the presidential meeting between the two countries."

As urbanization further progresses and the population of the middle class further expands in China, China's consumption market scale will keep enlarging. "There are still huge growth potentials for US exports to China in the future," Xu added.

Adam Gregg, lieutenant governor of Iowa, feels excited about the partnership Iowa has developed with China. "With the opening of China for US beef, that is a very exciting development for the state of Iowa and for our cattle farmers here," Gregg told Xinhua.

Gregg said a week from today, "Governor Reynolds will be in China leading an all-agricultural trade delegation."

China Chamber of Commerce of Import and Export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-Products (CCCFNA) has organized this event in cooperation with US Soybean Export Council. CCCFNA President Bian Zhenhu is confident of Sino-US cooperation in agricultural products.

"As consumption in China upgrades, and the trade environment created by the two countries grows better, the potentials of cooperation between the two countries will be huge," he told Xinhua.

Statistics show that trade volume between China and US reached 519.6 billion yuan in 2016, 211 times the amount when the two countries knotted diplomatic ties. In 2006-2015, US goods export to China grew 114 percent. US now has 26 percent of its Boeing aircraft export, 56 percent of soybean export, 16 percent of motor vehicle export, 15 percent of agricultural products export and 15 percent of integrated circuit (IC) export destined for China.

Statistics also show that US soybean shiploads destined for China in the 2016-2017 crop year was 33.79 million tons by May 11, 2017, higher than 26.747 million tons reported in the same period of last year and up 32.2 percent.