PRESS RELEASE: Wheat Organizations Encouraged by Progress on Phase One Deal with China

National Association of Wheat Growers/U.S. Wheat Associates

Contact:
Steve Mercer, Vice President of Communications, U.S. Wheat Associates  &nbsp
smercer@uswheat.org, (703) 650-0251
Caitlin Eanello, Director of Communications, National Association of Wheat Growers
ceanello@wheatworld.org, (202) 547-7800

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) are encouraged by news today that the United States and China have agreed on the text of a “Phase One” trade deal that apparently would roll back tariffs and re-open China’s important market for U.S. agricultural imports.

Earlier this year, China agreed to new policies related to new agricultural tariff rate quotas (TRQ), including a 9.6 million metric ton reduced tariff TRQ for wheat imports. China had imported as much as 1.65 million metric tons of U.S. wheat in marketing year 2016/17 and an additional 866,000 metric tons in 2017/18 before implementing retaliatory tariffs in March 2018. We also believe that China’s flour millers and growing baking industry would welcome the opportunity to purchase high-quality U.S. wheat classes again.

We want to thank the negotiators in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for their dedicated effort and we look forward to learning more details about the agreement.