Tuesday, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced a preliminary antidumping duty against U.S. sorghum imports. National Sorghum Producer’s Association External Affairs Director Jennifer Blackburn says the temporary anti-dumping deposit or tariff on U.S. sorghum shipments to the country was set at a hefty 178.6-percent.
The duty is a higher-than-expected charge on the feed grain, as trade tensions escalate between the world’s top two economies. She says it will bring U.S. exports to a halt and the Chinese are not justified in penalizing U.S. producers for dumping sorghum into the Asian nation.
China is the largest buyer of U.S. sorghum products, purchasing more than $900 million worth last year. Blackburn says they’re evaluating the different options available for their response to the Chinese trade retaliation.
In 2017, Nebraska growers ranked fifth nationally with 12 million bushels of sorghum produced. South Dakota was sixth with 11.6 million bushels. The leading state in sorghum production was Kansas with over 200 million bushels followed by Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma.
