"Many countries have the willingness and they totally have the capacity to take over the market share the U. S. is enjoying in China," a top Chinese official said.
This story is being published by POLITICO as part of a content partnership with the South China Morning Post. It originally appeared on scmp.com on Aug. 11,2018
China can easily find other countries to buy agricultural goods from instead of the U. S., its vice agriculture minister said, warning that American farmers could permanently lose their share of the Chinese market as a result of the trade war.
“Many countries have the willingness and they totally have the capacity to take over the market share the U. S. is enjoying in China. If other countries become reliable suppliers for China, it will be very difficult for the U. S. to regain the market,” Han Jun told official Xinhua news agency in an interview on Friday.
He also warned that American farmers could lose the position in the Chinese market they have spent several decades building up. Han said they may not be able to make up the losses brought by retaliatory tariffs, even with the White House’s planned $12 billion aid package for farmers caught in the dispute.
He said Beijing had imposed duties on 90 percent of the agricultural goods the country imports from the United States since the trade war kicked off at the start of last month, with limited impact on China.
“Levying additional tariffs will cause a great decrease in exports of U. S. agricultural products to China,” Han said. “But the impact on China is very limited, due to the diversified import sources.”
China and the U. S. have been locked in a tit-for-tat trade war since early last month. Beijing unveiled its latest retaliatory tariffs on $16 billion of American goods on Wednesday, matching Washington’s move to slap 25 percent duties on the same value of Chinese imports.
The vice agriculture minister also said Chinese companies had “basically stopped” importing soybeans from U.
