China has imposed preliminary duties on distiller's dried grains with or without solubles (DDGS), a coproduct of corn ethanol used as a feed ingredient, coming from the US.

Beijing launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into DDGS imports from the US at the start of 2016.

On September 23, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce set a preliminary anti-dumping duty of 33.8% for all US producers. Several days later, it issued preliminary duties related to the anti-subsidy probe of between 10% and 10.7%, depending on the producer, the US Grains Council (USGC) said.

In joint statements after the decisions, USGC, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Growth Energy said that US DDGS are not being dumped and are not causing injury to Chinese producers. "US DDGS play an important role in protecting Chinese feed producers and households against unpredictable swings in global commodity prices,” the organisations said.

In 2015, China was the largest foreign buyer of US distiller’s dried grains and accounted for 50% of all US exports of the product, RFA and Growth Energy said in a joint letter earlier this year.

 

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