U.S. International Trade Commission Launches Investigation of China’s Agricultural Trade

At the request of the Senate Committee on Finance, the U.S. International Trade Commission has initiated an investigation into “China’s Agricultural Trade: Competitive Conditions and Effects on U.S. Exports.” The commission will conduct a public hearing on the matter June 22, 2010, and the deadline for requests to appear is May 25. Prehearing briefs and statements must be filed no later than June 3. A commission report will be submitted to the Senate committee on March 1, 2011.

According to the commission notice of investigation and hearing, the report will cover the conditions of competition in China’s agricultural market and trade from 2005 to 2009 or the latest year for which data are available. Among other matters, the report will include information about trends in production, consumption and trade in China’s agricultural market; government agricultural market programs and pricing and marketing regimes; China’s participation in global agricultural export markets; tariffs and non-tariff measures posing barriers to trade; and an analysis of the economic effect of China’s most-favored-nation tariffs. See Federal Register, May 6, 2010.