Trade
China said on Saturday it pressed the United States to eliminate tariffs in talks between the countries’ top trade officials that Washington saw as a test of bilateral engagement between the world’s biggest economies.
Despite slowdowns in the export sales picture, actual exports are still running 26% ahead of the same time period last year, and with higher commodity prices, bulk export values are up 60%. USDA says that’s led by corn.
A virtual working meeting is expected before year’s end between President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
USTR divulges President Biden’s intentions with U.S.-China Trade Phase One while House Ag Committee’s Thompson applauds Trump and demonstrates hope in Biden.
China’s wheat imports hit the highest level in two decades, currently accounting for 19% of global consumption. The U.S. supplied 3 million metric tons of wheat imports during the last marketing year, or a 28% share.
Grain shippers on the Gulf Coast reported more damage from Hurricane Ida to their terminals on Wednesday as Cargill confirmed damage to a second facility, power outages across southern Louisiana kept others shuttered.
Hurricane Ida packed a punch of 150 mph winds this weekend, crippling grain shipping facilities in a key export area along the lower Mississippi River. Now it’s a question of how long export activity could be shuttered.
USDA is out with its new ag export forecast for both this year and next, and it’s showing exports could hit $173.5 billion in 2021, $4 billion more than 2020, due to higher livestock, poultry and dairy exports.
U.S. Wheat Associates celebrate victory in tariff import rate reduction in Vietnam, as U.S. wheat imports look to exceed the competition.
Shipping issues continue to surface. The latest is in China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan container port, which is the third-busiest in the world, and has been partially shut down for six days, with no sign of reopening yet.