China imposes retaliatory tariffs on ag equipment, other items

China has imposed retaliatory tariffs on certain items after U.S. President Donald Trump’s 10% tariffs against China went into effect early on February 4.

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China has imposed retaliatory tariffs on certain items after U.S. President Donald Trump’s 10% tariffs against China went into effect early on February 4.

Included on China’s list of items subject to an additional 10% tariffs are agricultural equipment including egg cleaning, sorting and grading machines; milking machines; animal feed preparation machines; poultry incubators and brooders; and poultry feeding machines.

“The U.S.’s unilateral imposition of tariffs seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization,” China’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement. “It is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also undermines the normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.S.”

China’s tariffs came one day after planned tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico were put on hold for 30 days, a result of talks between the countries’ leaders and Trump.

Trump had imposed a 25% additional tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico. Trump said he took this action to hold these three countries “accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.”

However, after Trump and Mexico President Claudia Scheinbaum spoke on Monday morning, the White House confirmed the tariffs on Mexican goods are on hold for one month after the two leaders reached an agreement on border security and drug and weapons trafficking.

And Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said after a Monday afternoon call with Trump that U.S. tariffs on Canada would also be postponed for one month while the two countries negotiate a border deal.

The Canadian government had responded to Trump's tariff measures with a 25% tariff on $30 billion in goods imported from the U.S. According to the government of Canada, those goods included complete animal feed and supplements including concentrates, meat and poultry products, live poultry, dairy products, eggs, wheat, rye, barley, oats, rice, rapeseed, and certain seed oils.

The White House said Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping would speak this week.

In a recent Feed Strategy Podcast episode, American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) President and CEO Constance Cullman addressed trade measures that could disrupt industry supply chains.

“In the short term, we're encouraging the Trump administration to really avoid taking drastic trade measures that could disrupt supply chains,” Cullman said. “When you think about the U.S.-China relationship, we are inextricably linked as economies, and while there are some definite disadvantages in the way China runs their economy and does business versus the way we do, we are still linked.”

According to AFIA, China is the U.S. animal food industry’s second top export destination, at $1.5 billion based on value in 2023. That same year, the U.S. animal food industry imported about $1.2 billion in animal food products, with some of the top imports being vitamin E, amino acids, dog and cat food, vitamin C and animal feed.

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