FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2017
VOLUME 90, NUMBER 4
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
THE
GREAT (TRADE) WALL
Associated Press
Chinese shoppers buy vegetables at a supermarket in Hangzhou, China. U.S. farmers have sought out China as a market for their fruits, berries, nuts and other crops.
QUESTION: How’s China’s economy
doing? ANSWER: It’s complicated,
especially for U.S. farmers.
C
Item
Population (2016 est.)
Labor force in ag (2012 est.)
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
hina watchers agree that nation’s
economic health is faltering.
With a slowing rate of
growth and massive debt, Chi-
na’s continued status as a global
economic powerhouse is in doubt.
Investors and economists are split over
the situation’s gravity, though. Is the patient
merely under the weather — or is it on the
verge of cardiac arrest?
While the Chinese government has ac-
knowledged that some key economic sec-
tors are sluggish, its offi cial statistics are
met with suspicion by analysts.
“We don’t have good data. We don’t have
a good sense of what’s going on over there,”
said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist for the
Stifel Financial Corp., an investment bank.
“You wonder how much they’re masking
behind those fi gures.”
Farmers in the U.S. have reason to worry
China vs. U.S. —
agricultural production
and other trade statistics
Total land area (sq. mi.)
about economic instability across the Pacif-
ic. They were on track to ship roughly $20
billion worth of agricultural products to
China last year, making it the second larg-
est destination for U.S. farm goods behind
Canada.
Even so, U.S. agricultural exports to Chi-
na have fallen more than 20 percent from
the most recent peak of about $26 billion in
2012, according to USDA.
Soybeans are the biggest agricultural ex-
port to China, but many other farm goods
from across the U.S. also cater to the mar-
ket, including fruits, nuts, wheat, cheeses,
livestock hides and grass seed produced in
the West.
Serious deterioration in the Chinese
economy would further diminish demand
for U.S. farm products, in turn weighing
Turn to CHINA, Page 12
Ag land as percent of total (2011 est.)
Irrigated land (sq. mi., 2012)
GDP (purchasing power parity, 2016 est.)
Ag as percent of GDP (2016 est.)
China
United States
1.37 billion
324 million
270.1 million
1.1 million
3.7 million
3.8 million
54.7%
44.5%
266,440
101,930
$21.27 trillion
$18.56 trillion
8.6%
1.1%
Total value of all imports (2016 est.)
$1.44 trillion
$2.2 trillion
Ag imports, total (2014)
$146.6 billion
$111.7 billion
Total value of all exports (2016 est.)
Ag exports, total
$2.01 trillion
$1.47 trillion
$79.8 billion (2013)
$150 billion (2014)
Source: USDA ERS, FAS; www.cia.gov
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
“Certainly the system could collapse. However, like our housing
bubble, bubbles can continue for a long time and it is diffi cult to
predict when they might burst.”
Desmond O’Rourke,
a retired Washington State University agriculture economist and world apple market analyst
Ag reaction split on Trump’s withdrawal from TPP
Capital Press
Ag groups are split on President
Donald Trump’s decision to with-
draw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacifi c
Partnership, a 12-nation trade agree-
ment negotiated by the Obama ad-
ministration.
Many U.S. agricultural groups
saw the TPP as a potential boon. It
included the U.S. and 11 other coun-
tries — Japan, Cana-
da, Mexico, Australia,
Vietnam, Chile, Ma-
laysia, Peru, New Zea-
land, Singapore and
Brunei Darussalam.
Japan, Mexico and
Trump
Canada are among the
biggest trade partners
for U.S. agriculture.
Trump also committed to rene-
gotiating the North American Free
INSIDE
Trade Agreement with
Canada and Mexico.
If partners refuse a re-
vamped pact that gives
American workers “a
fair deal,” Trump said
he will give notice of
Duvall
intent to withdraw the
U.S. from NAFTA.
American Farm Bureau Feder-
ation President Zippy Duvall said
in a statement that his organization
Capital Press
SPOKANE AG EXPO
SPECIAL SECTION
• Spokane Ag Expo and Pacifi c Northwest
Farm Forum at a glance
• Popular weatherman Art Douglas to
deliver his annual forecast
The Farm Bureau pledged to work
with the Trump administration to en-
sure that U.S. agriculture can com-
pete in the global marketplace.
“American agriculture is virtually
always a winner when trade agree-
ments remove barriers to U.S. crop
and livestock exports because we
impose very few compared to oth-
er nations,” Duvall said. “We need
the administration’s commitment to
Turn to TPP, Page 12
Scotts defends decision to seek deregulation for GE bentgrass
By SEAN ELLIS
Inland Northwest’s
biggest ag show
returns to Spokane
on Feb. 7-9
viewed TPP as a positive for agricul-
ture. It would have added $4.4 billion
annually to the struggling agriculture
economy, he said.
“With this decision, it is critical
that the new administration begin
work immediately to do all it can to
develop new markets for U.S. ag-
ricultural goods and to protect and
advance U.S. agricultural interests in
the critical Asia-Pacifi c region,” Du-
vall said.
ONTARIO, Ore. — USDA offi cials
have defended their Jan. 17 decision
to deregulate a genetically engineered
creeping bentgrass that escaped fi eld
trials in 2003 and has taken root in two
Oregon counties and a small part of one
Idaho county.
And Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., which
created the grass, defended its decision
to seek a deregulated status for the grass
despite agreeing not to commercialize it.
Environmental groups, on the other
hand, continue to harshly criticize US-
DA’s decision to deregulate the creep-
ing bentgrass, which was developed by
Scotts and Monsanto Corp. to withstand
applications of glyphosate, the active in-
gredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weed
killer.
Rick Coker, a USDA public affairs
specialist, told Capital Press in an email
the department must, under the Plant Pro-
tection Act, respond to any petition that re-
quests a determination of regulatory status
for a genetically engineered organism.
USDA’s decision must be based on
whether the organism is likely to pose a
plant pest risk, he said. If the department
determines it does not, it “has no legal
basis to continue to regulate that GE or-
ganism and must deregulate (it).”
After escaping fi eld trials, the bent-
grass took root in Malheur and Jefferson
counties in Oregon and part of Canyon
County in Idaho.
Scotts reached a 10-year memoran-
dum of agreement and memorandum of
understanding with USDA in 2015 that
Turn to SCOTTS, Page 12
4-1/#14
By MATTHEW WEAVER