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Chinese tariffs on U.S. wheat would cause significant harm

Steve Mercer with U.S. Wheat Associates says Chinese retaliatory tariffs would cause significant harm.

“There’s the African saying that when the elephants fight, the grass suffers.  Unfortunately in this case, I think the grass is the wheat growing in farmers’ fields.”

Mercer says he’d prefer the Trump Administration work through the World Trade Organization to address disputes between the world’s two largest economies.

He tells Brownfield a 25 percent tariff on U.S. wheat would have a chilling effect.

“And they can and still do buy from Canada, Australia, and even from Kazakhstan.  So it could have a very big impact.”

Mercer says China is a large buyer of U.S. wheat despite domestic production that surpasses every other country.

“They produce more than any other country in the world, but they need higher-quality wheat.  They need spring wheat, they need good quality hard red winter wheat, soft wheat up in the Pacific Northwest that they can’t get anywhere else.”

In the last five years, China has imported an average of more than one million metric tons of wheat annually.  Beijing is also bracing for a potential 20 percent drop in output this year because of adverse weather in key growing areas.

 

 

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