December 7, 2007

China soy imports unlikely to be hit by argentine move

China's imported soy shipments are unlikely to face delays despite Argentina's move to invalidate soy export declarations made prior to November 7, an executive with a major state-run grain trading firm in Beijing said on Friday (December 7, 2007).

"Most of China's soy buying has anyway been from the US over the past few months. To the extent that South American soy were bought, not much remains to be shipped, and they are unlikely to face any delays," said the executive.

Earlier Friday, some analysts had expressed apprehension that the Argentine move could cause some delays in imported soy arrivals in China.

Argentina's House of Representatives voted Tuesday to invalidate grain export declarations made prior to a November 7 increase in the export tax, where exporters can't show they had already bought the goods.

The bill, which now passes to the Senate for debate, aims to prevent exporters from avoiding higher export taxes in place when they actually ship the goods.

Exporters raced to declare export commitments last month ahead of the November 7 deadline, when the export tax on soy was raised to 35 percent from 27.5%.

Argentina is China's third largest source of imported soy after the US and Brazil. China is the world's biggest soy importer.