News

China extends tariff on U.S. Dried Distillers Grain

China is extending anti-dumping tariffs on U.S. Dried Distillers Grain imports five more years.

U.S. Grains Council CEO Ryan LeGrand says it’s disappointing but not a surprise.

“We kind of expected this outcome, we did (as USGC) file a defense on behalf of the industry as we typically do with these type of cases in the anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases. But just mounted a very minimal defense because we kind of knew what the outcome was going to be.”

The move keeps tariffs amounting to as much as 66 percent on U.S. DDGS.

LeGrand tells Brownfield China can be a 5-to-7-million-ton customer but has not been a strong presence in the market the past five years.

“When they’ve had these duties in place (and) Distillers Grains have found another home, albeit at probably a different relative value to corn and other ingredients. But they’ve found a home and exports have remained strong even without China.”

LeGrand says while USGC would like to see the U.S. Trade Representative address China’s tariffs on DDGS, there are more pressing issues both for the Grains Council and USTR.