By Rujun Shen
SHANGHAI, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Recent fluctuations in the yuan's exchange rate against the dollar are not having a big impact on U.S.-China agricultural trade, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said on Saturday.
After rising sharply against the dollar in the first seven months of this year, the yuan, whose exchange rate is controlled by China's central bank, remained flat for four months and then fell to a five-month low in December.
That has prompted speculation in the foreign exchange market that China may engineer a moderate depreciation of its currency to try to revive flagging exports.
But Schafer, visiting Shanghai after taking part in U.S.-China economic talks this week, said farm trade between the two countries "continues to be strong" and that the exchange rate was not so far a threat.
"Right now we don't see it being a huge factor in affecting agriculture trade between our two countries," he told reporters.
"The conversations we had at the Strategic Economic Dialogue were based on free market value of our currencies, and what we see around the world is when countries try to manoeuvre their currencies or set artificial values, it just doesn't work in the long run.
"So China's been very good about allowing that appreciation to happen, and we'll have to see where it goes."
China this month resumed importing U.S. high-quality wheat following a year of almost no imports, as falling U.S. wheat prices and freight rates made imports attractive.
"I believe that is an example of how our global trading of wheat will continue to increase," Schafer said. (Editing by Andrew Torchia & Jan Dahinten)