Chinese tariffs sting NC pork producers, but industry frets over larger trade fights | News & Observer

WASHINGTON — New Chinese tariffs on U.S. pork products may not have a large impact on North Carolina producers. But the possibility of a wider trade war has some in the agriculture industry concerned.

China announced a 25 percent tariffs on U.S. pork products and 15 percent tariffs on other products, including fruits and nuts. The move comes after President Donald Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum in early March.

“Trade wars or talks of trade wars and retaliation is not healthy for North Carolina agriculture or North Carolina farmers,” said Larry Wooten, the president of the North Carolina Farm Bureau.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue warned last month that agricultural products could be the “tip of the retaliatory spear” in any trade battles. Farmers and politicians from farm states, including many Republicans, have been concerned with the potential blowback to Trump’s tariffs.

About three percent of North Carolina’s pork products are sold to China, according to Andy Curliss, CEO of the NC Pork Council. About 25 percent of the pork products produced in North Carolina are exported and about15 percent of those go to China, which largely gets ears, feet and stomachs — or “variety meats,” in pork industry parlance.

China is a valuable market for those products, Curliss said, because of the price that the country pays for them and the relative lack of other markets for those products. More than $1 billion in U.S. pork was shipped to China last year, according to the National Pork Producers Council, making it the third-largest value market for U.S. pork products.

“I don’t want to diminish it,” he said. “When you place three percent of your product somewhere that otherwise it’s basically rendering, it’s a concern.”

A larger concern, however, is the renegotiation of and possible withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement. Canada and Mexico, the other nations in NAFTA, account for roughly 50 percent of North Carolina’s pork exports.

Trump has threatened repeatedly to withdraw from NAFTA, even as the three nations negotiate an update to the agreement. He did so again this weekend in a tweet.

The agriculture industry firmly supports remaining in the trade agreement.

“There’s no question, without a doubt, NAFTA has been good for American agriculture and NAFTA has been good for North Carolina agriculture, by every conceivable barometer and metric,” Wooten said.

American agriculture products often are the first targeted by foreign countries in trade wars because of the availability of food stuffs from other countries, Wooten said. In a piece for the Farm Bureau newsletter, Wooten wrote that a trade dispute over Chinese tires from 2009 to 2012 led to a 64.5 percent duty on U.S. chicken parts.

“Historically, trading partners target U.S. farm commodities because they know it sends a powerful political message,” he wrote. “... It’s clear from past actions and current data, our farmers will be among the first to suffer retaliation from these tariff increases.”