IARN — The latest trade numbers show strong U.S. agricultural exports despite transportation challenges.
Trade data shows U.S. exports are up this year with a significant increase in exports to China. Veronica Nigh is a senior economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation.
“We’re in the second year of our two-year Phase One commitment with China, which committed China to purchasing certain dollar values of U.S. agricultural products. So, thus far in 2021, January through August, we’ve exported nearly $18 billion of U.S. ag products.”
In 2020, the United States and China reached an historic and enforceable agreement on a Phase One trade deal that requires structural reforms and other changes to China’s economic and trade regime in the areas of intellectual property, technology transfer, agriculture, financial services, and currency and foreign exchange.
The Phase One agreement also includes a commitment by China that it will make substantial additional purchases of U.S. goods and services in the coming years.
Nigh says China is not far from the pace needed to reach the Phase One commitments.
“We believe the cumulative exports to China needs to be about $20 billion, at this point, in January through August. So, that means they’re only 12 percent behind where they need to be in order to reach the 2021 total value.”
Nigh says U.S. 2021 exports are strong despite transportation challenges in the United States.
“On the west coast we have port congestion. In the Gulf, they’re still recovering from Hurricane Ida. And so far, in 2021, the U.S. has exported over $115 billion in U.S. agricultural exports, of which almost 16 percent of that has been going to China. U.S. ag exports are up 28 percent compared to the same time period in 2020. Exports to China are up almost 120 percent.”
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