Stressing the U.S. Grains Council’s more than 30 years of work in China and the emergence of a new major market for U.S. feed grains, USGC Vice Chairman Julius Schaaf testified last week before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in Ames, Iowa, on issues related to U.S. feed grains and DDGS (distiller’s dried grains with solubles) exports to China.

“I was on the fourth panel of the day,” Schaaf noted, “so the Commission had already heard an earful before our turn came. But the questioning was still very active and pointed. They seemed surprised by [the Council’s] work in China on animal waste management, and they were especially interested in why China would choose to import feed grains rather than finished meat products.”

As did other witnesses, Schaaf pointed not only to the great potential of the Chinese market for agricultural trade, but also to the complexity and uncertainty of prediction. China is an agricultural powerhouse, the world’s leading producer of wheat, vegetables, pork, fish, rice and other products, and the second leading producer of corn. It is committed to increasing its own production, and its import demand will depend significantly on its own policy decisions about which sectors to prioritize.

“We can’t control their decisions,” said Schaaf, “so I emphasized that a key goal for [the Council] was increasing China’s confidence level in the international trading system. It’s all about food security. Increasing production around the world, especially in South America, means the opportunity to diversify supply, and over time that is likely to increase China’s readiness to rely on markets.”

Created in 2000 by the U.S. Congress, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission reports annually to Congress on the national security implications of the economic relationship between the United States and China. This report is based on an active series of hearings and staff investigations. The hearing last week was focused on agricultural policy and U.S. market access issues in China. A dozen witnesses representing different U.S. agricultural sectors, outside analysts, and government participated.

Written testimony may be viewed at: http://www.uscc.gov/Hearings/hearing-china%E2%80%99s-agriculture-policy-and-us-access-china%E2%80%99s-market. A full transcript will be available at a later date.