USGC Dismayed; Says Tariffs Against China Will Affect U.S. Grain Industry
Tom Sleight, the president of the U.S. Grains Council (USGC), says that the organization is “dismayed” at the Trump administration’s decision to order the Office of the U.S. Trade Representatives and the Treasury Department to impose a range of tariffs against China in response to a Section 301 investigation that found China was stealing U.S. intellectual property.
Sleight notes that the work of the USGC in promoting U.S. grains and grain products around the world has already been negatively affected due to trade relations between the U.S. and China. Over the past eight years, China has taken policy action against U.S. DDGs, sorghum, ethanol, and corn. Despite this, the USGC remains committed to trade with China because of the potential it holds for U.S. farmers.
In response to the tariffs, the USGC says it will strive to further diversify the markets for U.S. grains in the short term, and in the long term, the organization is targeting “a stable and coherent trade policy”.
U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) have also released statements saying that they support the U.S. government’s efforts to fight trade-distorting policies by China, but fear that retaliation will be targeted at the U.S. agricultural sector.
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