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Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Thursday said the Trump administration will move forward with a second tranche of trade relief payments to farmers and ranchers burned by retaliatory tariffs, even though the U.S. and China are closing in on a partial trade deal.

“We just have gotten authorization on the second tranche,” Perdue told reporters on a conference call. “We’ll be getting it ready hopefully at the end of this month or early December.”

USDA has so far paid farmers $6.7 billion for their 2019 production, on top of $8.6 million that was provided for last year’s production. The department has promised up to $14.5 billion in payments for 2019, divided in three batches. More than 564,000 producers have applied for aid this year, a USDA spokesperson told POLITICO this week.

It was previously unclear if the department planned to move forward with another tranche of payments, tentatively scheduled for November, because of the recent thaw in the trade war with China.

U.S. and Chinese officials are working to finalize a partial trade agreement in the coming weeks that would include a commitment by China to purchase large sums of American farm goods. President Donald Trump has said China will buy as much as $50 billion under the agreement, though such massive purchases might not be feasible because of supply and demand limitations.

Perdue suggested that additional trade aid might not be needed in 2020 once the agreement with China is signed.

“We’re very hopeful that the China negotiations can come to a favorable conclusion,” he said. “The numbers that we’re talking about right now would be very beneficial to our agricultural producers. We’re hopeful that trade would supplant any type of farm aid needed in 2020.”

The USDA chief was speaking to reporters after wrapping up a trade mission to Mexico with state agriculture officials and commodity groups.