Port Fees Removed as Part of US-China Trade Deal

In addition to soybeans being in the agriculture headlines as a result of the US China trade framework recently announced, China will resume imports of other US agricultural goods, although the details have yet to be disclosed. Faith Parum, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, said there has also been some other important progress.

“In addition, the United States has removed the Chinese port fees on any Chinese owned and operated ships, so that should help tensions be relieved.”

The administration also announced several smaller deals, including agreements with Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.

“Some of these are deals, some of them are more frameworks, but overall, they're good progress for US agriculture, we're going to see some opening of doors for us, dairy, poultry, rice, pork and ethanol, and we're also going to see some reductions of non trade barriers. But there is still a long ways to go when it comes to stabilizing the US ag economy.”

“There's still some uncertainty when we talk about agricultural trade, and that makes it harder for farmers to plan and make decisions. And so when we talk about an ag economy that's already feeling a lot of pain, the more certainty and the more open market access we can get for farmers, the better it will be.”

Once again, that is Faith Parum with the American Farm Bureau Federation, with today's Line on Agriculture Report. I'm Lorrie Boyer for the Ag Information Network.