China Launches Probe Into US Sorghum Dumping

China has launched an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into imports of sorghum from the United States, the commerce ministry said on Sunday, less than a fortnight after US President Donald Trump slapped steep tariffs on imports of solar panels and washing machines, Reuters reported. Beijing’s action is expected to immediately hit demand for the upcoming US sorghum crop, exports of which are largely used to feed China’s huge livestock sector, and send shivers through the entire US farm sector. China is the top buyer of US sorghum as well as soybeans, the United States’ most valuable export to the world’s No. 2 economy. The US shipped 4.76 million tons of sorghum to China in 2017, the bulk of China’s roughly 5 million tons of imports of the grain that year, and worth around $1.1 billion, according to Chinese customs data. That makes it almost twice as valuable as exports of Chinese aluminum alloy sheet to the US, also subject to recent trade action by Washington, which is being seen as another possible trigger for Beijing’s move.