Pakistan to offer to buy more soybeans to slim trade surplus with US

TOKYO -- Pakistan will offer to purchase more American soybean seeds, edible oil and fuel to reduce its trade surplus with the U.S. while inviting investment in its mining and mineral sector during trade talks with the Trump administration, the South Asian country's top official told Nikkei Asia.

The Pakistani government has already established a finance-ministry-led steering committee for the upcoming negotiations, and Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan has written a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to initiate the trade talks, Khan said in an interview with Nikkei in Tokyo last week. A series of official- and minister-level negotiations, including "the State Department, the Commerce secretary and other departments" of the U.S. and their Pakistani counterparts, are expected to be held "within the month of June," Khan added.