The U.S. Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party released a report this week containing recommendations to revamp trade relations between the U.S. and China, including a proposal to recategorize China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations status that could result in additional tariffs.
ASA and a coalition of other major agriculture organizations sent a letter asking that the committee not recommend that Congress revoke China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations status, outlining the damage this action would have on American farmers.
“The negative consequences for American farmers, ranchers and food producers would be profound and the economic impact on American workers and rural communities would be felt for years,” the groups state in a letter sent to the committee this week.
The groups emphasize that China is now the largest buyer of U.S. food and agricultural products, purchasing 19% of the country’s exports.
China is a vital market to U.S. soy, built on collaboration since 1982. Soybeans remain the United States’ number one food and agricultural export to the country. China is the world’s number one soy consumer and the number one importer of U.S. soy.
In the letter, the groups point to lessons learned from the 2018 and 2019 tariff increases and the devastating impacts felt by American farmers.
“Those retaliatory tariffs led to a significant reduction in U.S. agricultural exports to retaliating partners with China accounting for approximately 95% of the losses ($25.7 billion). Rural states with significant agriculture economies like Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Indiana, Nebraska, and Missouri were hit the hardest,” the groups write, adding that revoking China’s status could open up U.S. farmers to additional retaliation from the country.
The letter was led by Farmers for Free Trade and joined by ASA and many other of the nation’s leading ag organizations. Read the full letter here.
