(Reuters) — The United States and China agreed last week on several issues affecting agricultural trade.
They agreed to take action to expand bilateral trade in beef and chicken.
China also promised to evaluate eight varieties of U.S. genetically modified crops by the end of this month.
China will allow U.S. imports of beef no later than July 16, and the U.S. will issue a proposed rule to allow Chinese cooked poultry to enter U.S. markets.
The U.S. also signalled that it was eager to export more liquefied natural gas to China.
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Every new variety of GM crop has to win approval in export markets before it can be sold there.
China’s review covers crops grown from seeds developed by major companies, including Monsanto, Dow Chemical and DuPont, the U.S. Commerce Department and the companies said May 12. They have been stuck in the Chinese approval process for up to six years.
Dow AgroSciences said Chinese approval would be key to the roll out of its new Enlist corn and soybeans seeds in the U.S., where more than 90 percent of corn is genetically modified.
China has roiled markets and sent prices sliding in the past when it took a tough line on imports of certain GM products.
In November 2013, it began rejecting U.S. corn shipments because Chinese inspectors said they contained a GM corn variety made by Syngenta AG called Agrisure Viptera. The variety was approved by the U.S. but not China.
A U.S. trial over the matter is set to start this summer with farmers suing Syngenta after corn prices allegedly fell because of the rejections, which cost the agriculture industry up to $2.9 billion in lost sales and lower prices.
In 2016,China was the world’s second largest beef consumer at 7.7 million tonnes and importer at 812,000 tonnes of beef, behind the U.S.
China has bought negligible amounts of U.S. beef products since imposing a ban in 2003 over concerns about BSE.
Asia remains the top market for U.S. beef shipments — at $3.77 billion worth of beef cuts in 2016 — out of U.S. exporters’ total $6.34 billion. Japan ($1.51 billion) and South Korea ($1.06 billion) were the top buyers of U.S. beef exports.
Brazil was China’s top beef supplier in 2016, shipping $765.3 million dollars of frozen beef. Australia was the top fresh beef supplier valued at $57.11 million.
China was the 21st largest market for U.S poultry exports in 2016, purchasing only $33 million out of a total $3.875 billion of U.S. poultry exports.
In 2014, the U.S. exported about $315 million worth of poultry products to China, including chicken feet, or paws, which are popular there.
China has banned U.S. poultry imports since the U.S. suffered its worst-ever outbreak of avian flu in 2015.
