[Seafood Source] China’s move to impose a 25 percent tariff on imports of U.S. soy will be a hard blow for the American soy sector, but a boon for Latin American exporters, who have been eyeing increased exports to China, the largest oilseed importer in the world.
The tariffs will likely take some time to hit home, given stockpiles of U.S. soy at Chinese ports, but it appears that Argentina and Brazil – the dominant supplier to China – will seek to grab the United States’ 35 percent share of Chinese soybean imports. SeafoodSource reports China imported 93.5 million tons in marketing year 2016-2017 (September to September), taking 62.6 percent of total world exports and 61.2 percent of all U.S. soybean exports. China’s total oilseeds production stood at 58.5 million tons in the same timeframe.
