Chinese Duties on Sorghum Announced, Rocking Market and Accelerating Search for New Buyers

The Chinese government announced a 178.6 percent preliminary anti-dumping duty on U.S. sorghum this week, prompting the outrage of farmers, industry organizations and U.S. officials as well as an immediate ramp-up in efforts to find buyers for U.S. sorghum in transit and in the field.

The move by China was not surprising given the ongoing anti-dumping and countervailing duties investigations it is prosecuting against U.S. sorghum, and it came amid fierce back and forth between China and the United States on trade policy issues. Still, the imposition of the tariff, as well as its timing and severity, were clearly punitive and dealt a severe blow to U.S. farmers and exporters.

“We are being very clear with all stakeholders, here and in China: this tit-for-tat has to stop, and talks to find reasonable and lasting solutions must begin, for the good of U.S. agriculture and the customers we have spent decades working to win as loyal buyers,” said Tom Sleight, U.S. Grains Council president and CEO.

The National Sorghum Producers (NSP), a sister organization and founding member of the Council, expressed deep disappointment in the move and reasserted that U.S. sorghum is not being dumped in China, and U.S. sorghum producers and exporters have not caused any injury to China’s sorghum industry.

“National Sorghum Producers, alongside our producers, stakeholders and partners, has cooperated fully with China’s antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, including submitting several thousand pages of data demonstrating conclusively that U.S. sorghum is neither dumped nor causing any injury to China,” the group said in a statement. “None of this information appears to have been seriously considered or used in today’s preliminary determination, which is neither fair nor appropriate.”

News reports this week indicated the White House is considering options for response to the action on sorghum, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue issued a statement calling the decision political and baseless.

The Council, which is the export market development organization for the U.S. sorghum industry, is continuing its ongoing work to find new homes for U.S. sorghum, mindful that storage is limited for the new crop set to be harvested starting in the coming weeks.

Staff and representatives throughout Asia and the Western Hemisphere are fielding calls requesting information about procuring and using U.S. sorghum and actively reaching out to buyers to reinforce the grain’s value.

Representatives from the Council and NSP are also in ongoing and frequent conversations with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) on responses to the new duties as well as new programming that could mitigate its long-term impacts on the sorghum industry.

Information about U.S. sorghum is available on the Council website at www.grains.org/sorghum or from the National Sorghum Producers at www.sorghumgrowers.com.