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Since September, China returned to the U.S. market buying higher amounts of corn, soybeans, beef, pork and chicken. However, they still haven’t fulfilled commitments in rolling back tariffs on ethanol and dried distillers grains, says Terry Branstad, former China ambassador during the Trump administration and former Iowa governor.
“I’m optimistic that’s going to happen in the not too distant future. It’s in their interest as well as our interest,” Branstad explains during a panel discussion Jan. 26 of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association’s virtual annual convention.
Branstad says the phase one trade agreement with China requires major purchases of U.S. agricultural products, but they’ve not fulfilled their commitments to reduce retaliatory tariffs on ethanol and DDGs within that agreement. He continued to press the subject in his last days in China, and he’s hopeful it will happen especially if the Biden administration continues to push the matter.
Thinkstock.com: matheesaengkaew There’s hope for the beleaguered biofuels industry if government policies and export opportunities bear fruit. That’s the conclusion reached Tuesday, January 26, at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit, which was held in a virtual forum because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, described the state of Iowa’s biofuels industry as “battered, but battling for a better future,” during his remarks. Iowa is the national leader in ethanol and biodiesel production with 42 ethanol refineries capable of producing 4.5 billion gallons a year and 11 biodiesel plants with the capacity to produce more than 400 million gallons annually.