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Minnesota Pork CEO encouraged but unconvinced Trade War is over

The CEO of the Minnesota Pork Producers Association is encouraged but guarded about the preliminary trade agreement reached between the U.S. and China.

David Preisler points out this is not the first time it appeared an end to the trade war was imminent.

“We were very close to a deal last spring, and then things kind of fell apart. We’re really hopeful at this point though that things are much more serious from a standpoint of the negotiations. But I think at this point it’s really too early to tell.”

After President Trump announced Friday the U.S. and China had reached a fundamental deal in principle, Chinese officials reportedly asked for another round of talks before signing the first phase.

Preisler tells Brownfield even if tariffs remain in place, recent data shows China will continue to be an active buyer of U.S. pork.

“In fact, in one of the summer months China was actually our largest export customer. So even though we’ve got those duties that are in excess of 60 percent that are on U.S. product going into china, product is still moving.”

He says without tariffs, pork exports to China would move at an even faster pace.

The Chinese government recently announced African swine fever has resulted in about a 40 percent loss to its sow herd.