Milling & Baking News - September 21, 2004 - 17

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N.G.F.A. prods Bush administration
to spearhead effort on China trade
WASHINGTON - The National Grain
and Feed Association has urged the
Bush administration to mobilize a
global response with other grain exporting countries to oppose ongoing
trade restrictions imposed by China
that have brought soybean export trade
with that country to a virtual halt.
The N.G.F.A. said restrictions imposed by the Chinese government
during the past 19 months, ostensibly
under the guise of sanitary and phytosanitary issues, violated China's
commitments under the World Trade
Organization. The Chinese government also has imposed onerous requirements regarding how and with
whom trade must take place. That also
violates the rules-based W.T.O. trade
system, the N.G.F.A. said.
"Ironically, earlier this month the
United States and other countries were
successful in completing a framework
for future negotiations on agricultural
trade reform under the W.T.O. that
provides a promising springboard for
a successful conclusion of the Doha
Round," wrote N.G.F.A. President
Kendell W. Keith in a letter to U.S.

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Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick and Secretary of Agriculture Ann
M. Veneman. "Achieving aggressive,
broad-based agricultural trade liberalization is vitally important
to the future well-being of U.S.
agriculture.
"But it is equally essential
to hold countries like China
accountable for their existing W.T.O. commitments,
specifically to base trade on
non-discriminatory,
sciencebased rules. We urge the Bush
administration to take aggressive
action on that front immediately."
The N.G.F.A. especially criticized
China's regulations restricting agricultural trade, particularly in soybeans,
based on non-transparent, arbitrary
phytosanitary rules implemented
without prior notice or opportunity
for review or comment.
The Chinese government also has
imposed new and additional standards on imports of all plant and
animal agricultural products, the
N.G.F.A. said, and expressly rejected
the sanctity of international grain

sampling and inspection procedures
at origin, as well as commercial
contract terms. Additional Chinese
actions have taken the form of blacklisting firms from trading with that
country.
"These Chinese restrictions continue
to roil agricultural trade and, unless
revoked, will raise the prospect
of disrupting U.S. agricultural
exports to one of our biggest
foreign customers just as
U.S. farmers and agribusinesses prepare to harvest
and handle a record crop,"
Mr. Keith wrote. "But since
the Chinese actions transcend
U.S. interests, revoking them
will require a response involving
other countries.
"We fully anticipate that it will take
a united front of governments, as well
as producer and trading interests, to
convince China to reverse its misguided approach. The United States is
in an ideal position to spearhead such
an international response."
In this regard, the N.G.F.A. said it
strongly supported a pan-American
initiative undertaken in early July
by the North American Export Grain
Association and National Oilseed Processors Association. MBN

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Milling & Baking News - September 21, 2004

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