Iowa delegation speaks to Chinese officials about bilateral trade

by | Jul 26, 2017 | 5 Ag Stories, News

An Iowa delegation celebrates all that has been accomplished throughout Iowa?s first all-agriculture trade mission to China.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and Iowa?s nine commodity groups relayed their accomplishments to the media Wednesday.

Northey said Ambassador Branstad and Governor Reynolds have allowed for the delegation to have high-level conversations with important Chinese officials.

?We talk about big issues and small issues. The issues that we all have, from the opportunity to get Iowa beef in here to biotech issues and how more work needs to be done. We pushed hard to say, ?We are thankful for the biotech events that have been approved and that progress is being made, but there is more that needs to be done.? We talked about DDGs and the anti-dumping case, and how disruptive that is to our folks in Iowa and is as well to domestic feed users in China. We talked about regionalization of poultry products and the opportunity to get poultry productions in. A lot of different pieces that I think we?re constructive to meet the efforts of the Administration,? Northey said.

Governor Reynolds said the Iowa delegation has accomplished a lot while in China, but still has work to complete.

?We were able to thank them for opening the market for beef and for the approval of four traits,? Reynolds said. ?We followed up with the request for them to complete the approval of the four (additional traits), and to look for opportunities to talk about timelines, consistency and predictability in the trade approval process.?