Special Edition: Asian Feed Trends
China and US trade
The past year has seen some turbulence in trade between the US and China, particularly in relation to feed grains and oilseeds.
Toward the end of 2017, there appeared to be some thawing in the relationship as China cut the import VAT on US dried distiller grains. China had imposed additional fees on importing the feed ingredient at the start of 2017, following anti-dumping, countervailing duty investigations.
However, the nature of the relationship changed in February 2018 when China announced its investigation into imports of US sorghum. China subsequently declared it was imposing 178.6% duties on sorghum imported from the US in April, but there was a volte-face on that decision in May.
Members of the feed industry continue to call for a measured US trade policy, and flagged up the dangers of a trade war for the feed and farming sectors in both countries.