BEIJING—China has opened the door to imports of rice from the United States for the first time ever in what analysts took to signal a warming of relations between the world’s two biggest economies after a frosty year marked by tensions and tit-for-tat tariffs.
The green light from Chinese customs, indicated in a statement posted on the customs authority’s website on Dec. 28, comes in the run-up to talks between the countries in January after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to a moratorium on higher tariffs that would affect trade worth hundred of billions of dollars.
