Look to Eurasia, China tells grain traders as tariffs on US soybean kick in
Beijing offers support for infrastructure to expand sources of key agriproducts but barriers remain
China is encouraging its grain traders to look to Eurasia to diversify sources of major agricultural products as the country trades tariffs with the United States.
Zhang made the offer at a belt and road grain security meeting in Lanzhou, Gansu province, just hours before the world’s two biggest economies officially entered a trade war by imposing 25 per cent tariffs on US$34 billion worth of each other’s goods.
The US duties are focused on Chinese industrial goods while Beijing’s tariff list mainly targets food imports such as soybean, sorghum, corn and wheat. Additional tariffs and potentially longer customs checks on imported grain means that China needs to find alternative sources to meet increasing domestic demand.
Gansu province, neighbouring Mongolia to the north and close to China’s western border, was building a grain corridor connecting central Asia and western Europe, the report said.