"This is a tremendous leap forward to selling US rice in China." said Brian King, chairman of USA Rice, a rice-growers association, "Today's announcement ends a decade of effort by the American rice industry to open the world's largest rice importer. President Trump's focus on reducing our trade deficit with China put the rice industry back in the spotlight; and USDA Secretary Perdue told us he'd get this done and he did. We are thankful for the Administrations commitment---from the President on down---to American rice farmers and marketers."
When the Clinton Administration entered the WTO, China offered to purchase American rice, on the condition that our rice met their country's import health and safety protocols. The Bush and Obama Administrations did nothing about the protocols; except to file complaints with the WTO which China ignored. Trump and Perdue solved the problem in less than a week by allowing Chinese inspectors to deal directly with the rice industry; bypassing the hapless bureaucrats.
Rice industry spokesmen said that they are already producing a plan to upgrade mills and facilities to meet Chinese import standards. The jobs and opportunities created by this move are enormous. Chinese demand for rice is so high that it could consume the current US annual rice output in less than a month.
The US was once a major rice exporter, both to Asia and the Middle East but has been stagnated recently because of Deep State trade embargoes with Arab countries and crumbling US infrastructure. Opening China to the US rice market can't help but expand and revive the industry.
But don't look for the Corporate Media to announce positive developments. The headline writers today are hoping that a White House spokesman's resignation is a sign that the Administration is collapsing. Collapsing like our rice industry was until today.
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