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US agreement with China opens a door to US rice

The US and China have signed an agreement that will allow the import of U.S. milled rice into China but it won’t happen immediately. US Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue and China’s Vice Premier have agreed to a phytosanitary protocol that had been stalled for a long time.

The president of USA Rice, Betsy Ward, says the U.S. exports NO rice to China now, “When China joined the WTO they had to allow imports into China as part of their accession. But in order to do that you needed to sign what’s called a phytosanitary agreement, or a protocol, and we have been working for over a decade to execute that.”

Ward says the agreement now makes it legal to export US rice into China but there are some technical hurdles to overcome, “Their phytosanitary officials will need to come back to the United States. They were here on a tour a couple years ago to look at the mills and look at our facilities. But they’re going to need to come back and re-inspect. And, I will tell you that our mills are ready. They’ve already instituted the protocol over a year ago when we thought it might be signed back then.”

Once China verifies that US rice mills are following protocol, Ward says trade can resume. And she’s hopeful the first sale will happen by the end of this year.