August 2, 2004

Argentina, Brazil, US To Send Letter To China On Soy Concerns

Argentina, Brazil and the U.S. will send a letter to Chinese officials next week detailing their concerns about how new food import rules in China might affect trade, Argentine Agriculture Secretary Miguel Campos said Saturday.

The two South American nations combine with the U.S. to sell about 92% of the world's soybean exports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

China is the world's top soybean importer. The Asian giant is expected to import 24 million metric tons of soybeans in 2004-05, USDA data show.

China's demand for soy has rocked commodities markets in recent years, pushing prices up but also causing values to fluctuate dramatically.

This has caused headaches for many soybean exporters. Matters were made worse last month, when China changed its food import rules, causing further concern about how the country will deal with soy imports this year.

To obviate any problems, Campos, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Brazilian Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues will jointly write a letter to Chinese officials that expresses concern over the new rules.

The decision to send the letter was made Friday after Campos met with Rodrigues and Jim Butler, the U.S. Deputy Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services.

"We made the decision to express our concerns in a letter to AQSIS (China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine) and to the Ministry of Health," Campos said. "We are going to ask for a technical meeting to inquire about the possibility of modifying these new rules."

The letter will be delivered to Chinese authorities next week by ambassadors from the three signatories, an Agriculture Secretariat official said Saturday.