Wyden Blasts Illegal Chinese Subsidies For Wheat, Other Ag Goods

New Trade Case with WTO Highlights $100 Billion in Illegal Chinese Subsidies

WASHINGTON – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today praised the Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for challenging billions worth of illegal Chinese subsidies for wheat and other agricultural products, in a new trade case filed with the World Trade Organization (WTO).

China is a key market for U.S. agricultural commodities, including wheat, which is a leading agricultural export for Oregon.  Pacific Northwest wheat farmers shipped over 500,000 metric tons (MT) of wheat to China in 2015, a fraction of the nearly 100 million MT of wheat consumed in China annually.

“American farmers thrive whenever they compete on a level playing field, but when China doles out billions in wheat, rice, and corn subsidies to its farmers, it distorts global markets and undercuts American farmers’ ability to compete,” Wyden said. “Today’s action makes clear that the United States will enforce trade rules and defend the livelihood of agricultural communities in Oregon and across the nation.” 

More than 85 percent of Oregon wheat is exported, according to the Agribusiness Council of Oregon. Chinese subsidies to wheat, rice and corn producers have annually exceeded subsidy caps that China committed to honor when it joined the WTO by as much as nearly $100 billion. 

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