U.S. farmers lose as much as US$5.2 billion in sales each year because of China's import restrictions on wheat, poultry, pork, cotton and other food and agricultural products, a new U.S. study said on Tuesday.
“China is our number one market for U.S. agricultural product exports, but China's unjustified trade barriers are blocking some of our goods such as wheat and beef,” U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said in response to the new International Trade Commission (ITC) study.
The ITC report, which was requested last year by the Finance Committee, said China is the world's second-largest agricultural importer behind the United States but still uses tariff and nontariff measures to restrict imports.
“We need to hold China accountable to its international agreements so American ranchers and farmers can compete on a level playing with their world-class, safe agricultural products,” Baucus said. The report estimated that Chinese tariffs and tariff-rate quotas reduced U.S. food and agricultural exports to China in 2009 by between US$1.3 billion and US$2.1 billion.
U.S. wheat exports suffered the most, or between US$489 million and US$1.2 billion in lost sales.
Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Charles Grassley, the top Republicans on the Finance Committee, complained China also uses phony safety concerns to block U.S. farm goods.
“Citing alleged food safety concerns, China has opted to outright ban U.S. beef and impose significant restrictions on other U.S. agricultural products, including pork,” Hatch said.
“Such unjustified claims impede access to the Chinese agricultural market ... and ultimately hurt American farmers and ranchers,” Hatch said.
The ITC estimated nontariff barriers, such as food safety restrictions or technical barriers to trade, impeded US$2.6 billion to US$3.1 billion in U.S. farm sales to China.
Wheat, potatoes, apples, stone fruit, cotton, beef, pork and poultry were most affected, the study said.
Source: The China Post
