Trade

William Mauldin reported in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal that, “High-level talks between the Biden administration and Beijing that veered into acrimony put the U.S.-China rivalry in sharp relief, complicating efforts by the two powers to erect guardrails and keep tensions from spiraling further.”

Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday that, “China, the biggest corn consumer after the U.S., is still short of the feed grain, and more overseas purchases are likely.”

Earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported that, “African swine fever is re-emerging in Asia, threatening to upend efforts to replenish national herds after the virus killed tens of millions of pigs in the region and created a huge shortage of meat protein.”

Wall Street Journal writer Jesse Newman reported on Wednesday that, “China is once again the U.S.’s chief customer for agricultural goods, three years after the start of a bruising trade war that prompted American farmers to try to wean themselves off their biggest market.”

On Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee held a confirmation hearing for U.S. Trade Representative nominee Katherine C. Tai.

Financial Times writers Emiko Terazono and Sun Yu reported last week that, “Record purchases by China have sent corn prices soaring since the end of last year, leaving farmers and analysts pondering how long the surge can be sustained.”

Financial Times writer Emiko Terazono reported last week that, “Global food prices have reached their highest in almost seven years, further raising the spectre of food inflation and hunger at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic continues to hit economies around the world.”

Last week, Reuters writers Mark Weinraub and Karl Plume reported that, “China booked its biggest purchase of U.S. corn yet, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Friday, buying more at once than any country except the Soviet Union 30 years ago, as it tries to meet a surge in demand for animal feed.”

Bloomberg writers Kim Chipman and Nicholas Larkin reported this week that, “Corn prices in Chicago reached a seven-year high with China’s appetite for the grain stoking global supply concerns.”

Late last week, Aime Williams and Justin Jacobs reported at The Financial Times Online that, “China has purchased less than three-fifths of the US goods projected under the “phase one” trade deal that paused a tariff dispute between the two countries a year ago, posing another challenge for the administration of Joe Biden in its relations with Beijing.”

Earlier this month, in its Livestock and Poultry: World Markets and Trade report, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) stated that, “Driven by higher estimates for pork, the China total meat import forecasts for both 2020 and 2021 are revised 4 and 1 percent higher, respectively. While pork import growth slowed in the fourth quarter of 2020, it nevertheless exceeded expectations and results in a more bullish outlook for 2021.”

Reuters writers Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton reported last week that, “China’s soybean imports jumped 13% to an annual record in 2020, customs data showed on Thursday, after crushers ramped up purchases amid improved margins and healthy demand from the country’s rapidly recovering pig sector.”

Bloomberg News reported earlier this week that, “China approved two genetically modified corn varieties from Bayer AG and Syngenta AG for imports as demand for animal feed surges.”

Last week, Bloomberg News reported that, “China is far away from meeting its U.S. trade-deal commitments, with the latest data showing it’s imported just over half of the American goods it promised to buy in the first year of the phase-one agreement.”

Last week, Bloomberg writers Isis Almeida, Samy Adghirni, and Tatiana Freitas reported that, “Brazil is close to an agreement that would allow the world’s second-largest corn exporter to boost sales of the grain to China, a move that could threaten the U.S.’s dominance, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Last week, in its monthly Grain: World Markets and Trade report, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) explained that, “Trade data for 2019/20 (October-September) are largely complete. Many countries imported record volumes of corn, despite initial concerns over a potential slowdown in feed use due to COVID-19.”

On Monday, Reuters writer Dominique Patton reported that, “Behind the walls of a hulking industrial compound in rural China, top pig producer Muyuan Foods is trying to raise more hogs on a single site than any company in the world – a risky investment with deadly African swine fever lingering.”

Bloomberg News reported late last week that, “China is set to import more U.S. corn, with volumes for next year seen hitting the top end of market expectations and squeezing global grains prices.”

On Monday, the USDA released its Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade, a quarterly report from the Department’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and Economic Research Service (ERS).

Wall Street Journal writer Lucy Craymer reported late last week that, “China’s voracious appetite for imported meat is starting to wane, as domestic pork prices fall and consumer worries grow about the coronavirus lingering on food.”