Sawt Falasteen - Battered US businesses eye improved China trade at Shanghai expo

After spending much of this year in a tit-for-tat tariff escalation, the United States and China have agreed to walk back from some punitive measures after a meeting last week between leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

At the annual China International Import Expo (CIIE), US ginseng seller Ming Tao Jiang told AFP multiple rounds of duties imposed since Trump's first presidential term had "decimated" growers in central Wisconsin state.

"Before 2018 we had 200 registered growers in Wisconsin, in Marathon County... after the first and second round of tariff wars, adding insult to injury of Covid, we're down to 70," said Jiang, founder of the Marathon Ginseng company.

"With the recent agreement between the two governments, I think things are stabilised, we're looking for a better potential in the future," Jiang added.

The North American variety of the aromatic root ginseng, believed to have medicinal properties in traditional Asian cultures, was one of the first products shipped by the United States to China in the 1780s.

US and Chinese authorities have sporadically slapped retaliatory tariffs on each other's ginseng products since 2018, with Jiang saying his goods currently face a 45 percent import duty in China.

"We're here trying to keep our tradition going for the local economy," he told AFP.

- 'Hurting everybody' -

Other US exhibitors echoed Jiang's cautious optimism, as visitors sampled Chinese-style baijiu liquor made from American rice and browsed stalls advertising cornbread mixes and California almonds.

Tara Qu is a trade representative in China for Idaho state who on Thursday oversaw the ceremonial signing of a purchase agreement between a Chinese maker of salted duck eggs and dynamite.

"I think the tariff decrease can help a little bit," Qu told AFP, referring to the recent agreement by China and the United States to suspend additional tariffs on each other's goods.

But as Beijing continues to levy a 10 percent blanket tariff on US imports, "we hope there will be a further reduction, so that trade can go back to normal", Qu said.

Qu added that US companies fear that Chinese buyers spooked by the trade war will turn to alternative suppliers from other countries.

She pointed to Anderson Northwest, an Idahoan producer of beans and pulses, as a CIIE exhibitor hit especially hard by tariffs this year.

"Since the tariffs increased by 20 percent, they haven't exported any of their products to China," Qu said.

Eric Zheng, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, told AFP: "We certainly hope that there will be more reductions in tariffs, because tariffs are hurting everybody."

"We have a long way to go to lower tariffs on (chamber) members," Zheng said, noting that Californian wines, for example, are currently subject to over 100 percent in Chinese import duties.

Throughout the trade war, "it was very difficult to plan for the long term," Zheng said.

Zheng welcomes planned visits by Trump and Xi to each other's countries next year.

"With those political events in place, I think we'll see (a) more stable environment, at least in the next year, if not beyond," Zheng said. "That's welcome news for us".

O.Farraj--SF-PST