February 2, 2018
Why China is highly important to US farmers
The US continues to invest so much in China, despite trade challenges, for a myriad of reasons including its being a huge export market, an official of the US Department of Agriculture said.
USDA Trade Counsel Jason Hafemeister, in an article posted on the site of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), said that while trade with China can be challenging, the country is consistently one of the US' largest export markets, adding that last fiscal year, US exports of agricultural and related products topped $26 billion.
Hafemeister also said that China offers the US the best opportunity for major export growth in the future. "If China makes needed policy reforms this, coupled with expanding demand and domestic production challenges there, could ultimately yield billions in additional sales", he said.
He recalled that way back in 1994, China was considered a minor market for the US, when the US agricultural exports totaled just $1.2 billion a year.
"Things have changed significantly since then. When China finally joined WTO (World Trade Organisation) in 2001, its GDP was only $1.3 trillion. By 2017, it had jumped to $12.3 trillion, second only to the United States", he said.
He added, "In 2001, US soybean exports to China totalled $1 billion. By 2016, they topped $14 billion, making China the largest buyer of US agricultural products".
Increasing demand for beef
Hafemeister also cited Chinese consumers' surging demand for beef, as it bought from the US more than $3.1 billion worth in 2017.
"China reopened its market to US beef last summer and now high-quality US steak is routinely selling for twice as much there as it does at home", he said.
Even then, doing business in China remains tough, he said. "Before it joined the WTO (World Trade Organisation), China strictly controlled trade and often restricted imports with little rhyme or reason. Although it has since made important reforms to its controlled economy, China still maintains multiple, unjustified barriers to access for our agricultural products."
Among these barriers, he said, were China’s "dysfunctional" approval process for imports of products developed through biotechnology; its "unjustified" restriction of US poultry imports; its grain policies; and its bans on the use of certain veterinary drugs and growth promotants "deemed safe under international standards".
"Removing barriers to imports will give Chinese consumers more choices, better prices and a more consistent supply of high-quality products", Hafemeister said. Rick Alberto
