An investigation that China launched Tuesday into U.S. exports of an animal feed is "surprising and could be disruptive to trade," the U.S. Grains Council said in a statement Friday.
The council is an influential lobby for the U.S. farm industry, and the statement was its first riposte to Beijing since China opened the antidumping probe into a rising tide of Chinese imports of U.S. distiller''s dried grains, a byproduct of corn-ethanol production that is used for animal feed.
"China''s unusual market and supply volatility over the last two years has resulted in new global trade flows," council president Thomas Dorr said. "As trade flows change, it should perhaps not be surprising there would be an adjustment period in response to unprecedented demand."
China''s imports of DDG from the U.S. rose more than five times this year, reflecting a price advantage the U.S. exporters enjoyed around mid-year and sharply higher Chinese feedmeal demand.
China imported more than 3.1 million metric tons of U.S. distiller''s dried grains this year, up from 652,000 tons last year, the state-backed China National Grain & Oil Information Center said in an estimate Thursday.
The value of the trade in the first 11 months of the year jumped nearly eight times to $694 million, the center said.
In 2008, China imported "not even 10,000 tons" of DDG, it said.
Beijing''s probe comes a week after the U.S. said it was requesting consultations with China at the World Trade Organization to end hundreds of millions of dollars of Chinese subsidies to boost wind-power production.
Bilateral trade tensions have sharpened this year, with chicken, steel and tires among a range of commodities that have attracted a series of tit-for-tat punitive import taxes.
"The mission of the U.S. Grains Council is to keep markets open and support the free flow of goods," Mr. Dorr said, adding that China is an important trade partner and market for the U.S.
The U.S. farm lobby has sought to promote DDG among Chinese feed mills as an alternative to corn for feeding pigs, chicken and cattle.
U.S. farm interests see Chinese consumers as a ripe sales target for DDG as an alternative to corn. Unlike corn, DDG for use in animal feed isn''t subject to China''s import quotas or its rules on genetically modified food.
China''s demand for feedmeal and corn is likely to continue growing sharply next year, reflecting a higher proportion of meat in consumer diets and a rise in large-scale hog farms that increasingly supplant backyard pig-rearing, Deputy Agriculture Minister Wei Chaoan said Thursday.
Even as Beijing demands full self-sufficiency for key grain products, feedmeal demand is expected to rise by about 4.5 million tons next year, he said.
The U.S. became China''s largest corn supplier this year, after China broke a 15-year run of self-sufficiency to turn net importer in June.