U.S.' Mnuchin says ag sales to China will 'take time to scale up' to $40-50 bln

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday that it will take time for Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural goods to "scale up" to the $40 billion to $50 billion annual level touted by President Donald Trump if the two sides can seal a "Phase 1" trade deal.

Mnuchin told Reuters in an interview in Saudi Arabia that the $40 billion to $50 billion target is "a lot," but is based on "very specific discussions" of product purchase commitments by China. "This is built on a bottom-up basis of both what we think we can deliver and what they think they need," Mnuchin said. "It's a one-year target, but obviously it's going to take some time to scale up."