China to suspend soybean imports from USA

According to international news agencies, the government of China has instructed its state-owned companies to suspend imports of USA agricultural products, including soybean. The move has been made in retaliation after US President Donald Trump imposed a 10% tariff on over US$300bn in imports from China starting September.

China says USA imports of soybean and other agriculture products have declined because of prices deemed as “uncompetitive”, but it was sticking to the recently signed soybean deal between the two countries by buying millions of tons of the commodity.

Secretary-General of the China National Reform and Development Commission, Cong Liang, said “the charges are unfounded,” as reported by the agency Xinhua. “China has made good progress in buying US agricultural products after the two heads of state met in Japan in late June,” he added.

Cong also said that since the meeting to the end of July, about 2.27m tons of American soybeans have been shipped to China and another 2m ton of soybeans should be shipped in August.

Nevertheless, Chinese Customs figures show that the volume of soybeans purchased from the United States in the first six months of the year is the lowest since 2004.

Analysts are saying the 14m tons of soybeans China says it has bought has actually been negotiated between companies in both countries but are still awaiting shipment confirmation from the Chinese regulator. Regardless, American soy is more expensive than Brazilian soy.

Chinese demand for soybeans is lower due to the African swine flu epidemic, which has reduced demand for the grain to be used for feed production.

Source: Valor

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