Sorghum duty ‘ludicrous’

Ag secretary slams China’s decision to impose 178.6 percent antidumping levy on imports from the United States.    The U.S. government, along with the nation’s sorghum producers, are questioning the basis for China’s decision to impose a 178.6 percent antidumping duty on these imports from the United States.
   “The international grain market is about the freest market there is, and it is ludicrous to even mention ‘dumping’ because China can buy product from anywhere they choose,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement. “This is clearly a political decision by the Chinese and we reject their premise.”
   Many industry and political analysts, cited in various news reports, believe the sorghum antidumping duty announcement made by China on Tuesday is merely another retaliatory shot over recent U.S. tariffs placed on Chinese-made products, such as aluminum and steel, as well as the Commerce Department’s ban on U.S. suppliers dealing with Chinese telecom ZTE over alleged export control regulations violations.
   The Lubbock, Texas-based National Sorghum Producers said it has “cooperated fully” with Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s antidumping and countervailing duty investigations and said it had submitted “several thousand pages of data demonstrating conclusively that U.S. sorghum is neither dumped nor causing any injury to China.”
   “None of this information appears to have been seriously considered or used in today’s preliminary determination, which is neither fair nor appropriate,” the trade association said.
   Sorghum is used in a variety of products, including livestock feed, brewing beer, building materials, fencing, floral arrangements, pet food and brooms. In the United States, the top five producing states are Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Colorado.
   According to the U.S. Grains Council, the largest importer of U.S. sorghum in 2016-17 was China, at 4.8 million metric tons, followed by Mexico at 568,000 metric tons and Japan at 183,000 metric tons.  
   The National Sorghum Producers said China’s antidumping duties on this U.S. export “reflects a broader trade fight in which U.S. sorghum farmers are the victim, not the cause. And U.S. sorghum farmers should not be paying the price for this larger fight.”