MNI POLICY: Grassley Sees China Meeting Farm Buys Amid Virus

     WASHINGTON (MNI)  - U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley

said he is not concerned about China avoiding agricultural purchases agreed to

in the Phase One trade deal even as the coronavirus outbreak may slow demand. 

     A slowing Chinese economy would "inhibit" those purchases, he told

reporters at a briefing Thursday.  "You got to be worried about that, but I

don't think it's a change of policy."

     It will probably take a year to figure out if China has followed through,

he said. That timeframe would put it beyond the next U.S. Presidential election,

and Donald Trump led the push for China to boost farm purchases under threat of

massive tariffs.

     "We're going to be able to measure that very clearly on agriculture,"

though the U.S. "may not be able to measure it on intellectual property," he

said.

     Grassley's comments are more measured than a month ago when he told

agricultural reporters that if the Chinese are not meeting their Phase One

obligation, then "they can count on the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee

to call them on it."

     The Iowa Senator said over the last two years "there was a great deal of

anxiety, chiefly among farmers," and that "I don't sense that anxiety now." 

     Some industry officials agree, with American Farm Bureau representatives

telling MNI earlier that the Phase One agreement should revitalize their

industry.

--MNI Washington Bureau; +1 202 371 2121; email: ryan.hauser@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: MTABLE,MAQDS$,MAUDS$,M$A$$$,M$Q$$$,M$U$$$,MC$$$$,MI$$$$,MGQ$$$,MGU$$$]