Update | China scraps levy on US sorghum imports amid trade war talks
Analysts say it amounts to a goodwill gesture amid negotiations in Washington between the two nations aimed at resolving their increasingly volatile trade disputes
China has dropped an anti-dumping levy it imposed a month ago on US sorghum imports amid talks between the two countries to try to avert a trade war.
A notice by the Chinese Commerce Ministry said the anti-dumping duty of 178.6 per cent imposed on April 18 has increased costs for consumers and was against the public interest.
Many pig farmers faced operational difficulties after the levies were imposed and the ministry has decided to drop them, the notice said. One of the main uses of the grain is for animal feed.
China imposed the preliminary anti-dumping tariffs on US sorghum after US President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese imports amid the two countries’ escalating trade dispute.
The US shipped 4.76 million tonnes of sorghum to China in 2017, the bulk of China’s roughly five million tonnes of imports of the grain that year, according to Chinese customs data. The value of the imports was roughly US$1.1 billion.