U.S. Beef Sales to China May be Bargaining Chip, Analyst Says

Chinanews.com reports: 

If U.S. President Donald Trump launches a trade war against China, the country could retaliate starting with red meat imports from the U.S., which have been considered as a sector with high potential in recent years, an industry expert told the Global Times on Sunday.

The comment came after Iowa Governor Terry Branstad said that he will work to promote such sales after becoming the U.S. ambassador to China.

With the Chinese customers' appetite for imported beef growing, countries such as the U.S., India and Brazil have been tapping into the market in recent years, Ma Wenfeng, a senior analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant, told the Global Times on Sunday.

“The prices of imported beef are much lower than (that available from) breeding domestically, and this has become a profitable business for merchants,” he said.

China lifted a decade-plus ban on some beef from the U.S. in September 2016, according to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and the ban on bone-in and boneless beef from cattle under 30 months old from the U.S. was removed.

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Source:  Chinanews.com