China US conflicts escalate us grain market worries

Lead: Oriental egger news on November 20: although so far, the trade friction between China and the United States has not hurt China's massive purchases of soybeans, cotton and other crops this year, analysts worried Thursday that the trade conflict between China and the United States might escalate Bill Nelson, an analyst at WM5 A.G Edwards, said there were concerns that China might cancel its procurement contracts, but no such moves have been made so far China's demand for us soybeans has slowed this week, according to an exporter who declined to be named The basis price shows that there are not many soybeans sold to China China continued to buy U.S soybeans and cotton in the week ending November 13, according to the weekly export sales report released by the U.S Department of agriculture on Thursday, a week before the U.S announced restrictions on Chinese textiles that triggered trade frictions between the two countries WM5 on Tuesday, the U.S government announced new quota restrictions on some Chinese textile imports, causing trade conflicts between the two countries In the week to November 13, WM5, China bought 105100 tons of us soybeans Since September 1, the total amount of us soybeans imported by China has reached 6454700 tons, compared with 2998500 tons in the same period last year Last year, China's exports accounted for one-third of U.S soybean exports During the same period, China also imported 1965, 500 bales of cotton from the United States, bringing the total volume of imports since August 1 to 274, 4800 bales, compared with 47, 8200 bales in the same period last year The Chicago grain market was encouraged by news of WM5 export sales, but speculation was that China might use its position as a big buyer to counter US practices The US is trying to get China to reduce its huge trade surplus with the US or change its RMB exchange rate policy WM5 the US Department of Commerce on Tuesday announced import quota restrictions that annoyed China China denounced the US decision and quickly cancelled the trip of the soybean, cotton and wheat purchasing delegation scheduled to visit the US this week, casting a shadow on China's demand outlook Earlier, the market had expected China to buy a lot of American agricultural products, which boosted the price of soybean and cotton in the United States, setting a multi-year high Peter Thornton, sales manager for Asia at WM5's American Soybean Association, told reporters that an official from the Chinese agricultural group had informed Chinese buyers Thursday to postpone plans to visit the United States 'we told Chinese officials that we would welcome them to visit the United States at any time and asked when they might visit the United States, and these buyers didn't know,' Mr Thornton said Before Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to the United States in early December, the market generally expected that China's procurement would be friendly to the United States, aiming to reduce the huge trade surplus between China and the United States, which is expected to reach 120 billion US dollars this year WM5 China cotton purchasing delegation also made no comment on the cancellation of the trip Mark Langer, of the National Cotton Council, said it was hard to say WM5 has signs that trade conflicts between China and the United States are likely to heat up, with the Chinese government saying Thursday it plans to raise import tariffs on some U.S goods But Vice Commerce Minister Ma Xiuhong didn't elaborate on which U.S import tariffs would be raised and when Like other commodity markets, WM5's exchange rate is also affected by the quota restrictions imposed by the United States on China's textile imports President Bush told reporters in London on Thursday that he was aware of the market impact caused by the US announcement of quota restrictions on China's textile imports and hoped to hold more consultations with China on this matter Wm5