Monday, October 25, 2004
US farm exports to China may touch $6 bn this year
REUTERS
WASHINGTON: China is becoming an increasingly reliable market for US agricultural goods. reversing early concerns by exporters that Beijing might try to skirt new trade obligations, a top US government official said on Thursday.
"China is doing a good job of keeping its WTO commitments," Allen Johnson, the chief US agriculture trade negotiator, said.
Following China's 2001 entry into the WTO, the US agriculture community, especially wheat and corn interests, complained that Beijing was slow to further open its markets.
"The trend line I think is pretty clear. They are continuing to have growing demand for food products and I don't see that trend line stopping," he said.
In August, the US Department of Agriculture forecast American farm exports to China will add up to about $6bn in the fiscal year that began on October 1. Total US agriculture exports for the same period were forecast at $57.5bn. The $6bn forecast is up sharply from $3.5bn the previous year and reflects brisk US exports of cotton, soyabeans and wheat to China.
In previous years, however, the US saw only negligible grain exports to China and disruptions related to confusing regulations for genetically modified soybeans. Many American exporters saw those disruptions as trade barriers fashioned to protect domestic Chinese industries.
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