China will remove import tariffs on animal feed ingredients including soyabeans, soyameal and rapeseed from five Asian countries, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday, a sign Beijing is seeking alternative supplies of the commodities as a trade dispute escalates with the United States.
China will drop tariffs on soyabeans, soyameal, soyabean cake, rapeseed and fishmeal originating from Bangladesh, India, Laos, South Korea and Sri Lanka from July 1, the ministry said. Tariffs on soyabeans are currently at 3 percent, rapeseed at 9 percent, soyabean meal and cake at 5 percent and are 2 percent on fishmeal.
Even though the government had planned the tariff cuts since March, the cuts indicate that China is taking steps to reduce its dependence on US soyabeans amid the mounting trade dispute between the two countries. Soyabeans are China's biggest agricultural import from the United States by value.
"It demonstrates the government's attitude that we will import from other countries. The market will understand from this that it's a signal," said Monica Tu, analyst at Shanghai JC Intelligence Co Ltd. Apart from India, the countries included are relatively small soyabean producers. None of them exported any of the oilseed to China in 2017.
India grew 11 million tonnes of beans in the 2016/17 marketing year, but only exported 269,000 tonnes, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture. However, the country exported just over 2 million tonnes of soyameal globally.
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