FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue speaks during an event hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump with workers on "Cutting the Red Tape, Unleashing Economic Freedom" in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will be able to quickly recover lost markets for U.S. farm products to China once Washington and Beijing clinch a trade deal, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Thursday.

He said that China has pledged to purchase “significant” quantities of U.S. agricultural products, but that “those proposals are all contingent upon a grand deal” that must include Chinese assurances on intellectual property issues.

“I think if we could get those types of assurances regarding China taking intellectual property theft seriously, then we could see a renewed and expanded agricultural trade,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual forum in Washington.