U.S. officials pressed China on issues related to poultry, beef and biotechnology in recent trade talks, a U.S. Department of Agriculture under secretary said on Tuesday, highlighting some of Washington’s priorities in the negotiations.

The United States and China have threatened tit-for-tat tariffs on goods worth up to $150 billion each as part of the conflict, in which U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to close the $335 billion annual U.S. goods and services trade deficit with China.

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More than 7 in 10 shoppers want to find out more about the grocery products they buy than they are currently able to get with traditional on-package labels, according to a new national survey. These shoppers want to go beyond the ingredients listed on the label to get information on what the ingredients do and why they are in the product.  Read more

U.S. inflation accelerated in May to the fastest pace in more than six years, reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s outlook for gradual interest-rate hikes while eroding wage gains that remain relatively tepid despite an 18-year low in unemployment. The consumer price index rose 0.2 percent from the previous month and 2.8 percent from a year earlier, matching estimates, a Labor Department report showed Tuesday. The annual gain was the biggest since February 2012 and follows a 2.5 percent increase in April. Excluding food and energy, the core gauge was up 0.2 percent from the prior month and 2.2 percent from May 2017, also matching the median estimates of economists.  Read more

This guidance describes the type of information that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) recommends sponsors provide to address the human food safety of new animal drugs used in food-producing animals. The human food safety evaluation of new animal drugs used in food-producing animals helps ensure that food derived from treated animals is safe for human consumption. Sponsors are required to furnish to CVM scientific data or information necessary to demonstrate that residues of the new animal drug in the edible tissues of treated animals are safe (see section 512(b)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act)). In general, studies conducted to provide this information must be conducted in accordance with FDA’s Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) regulations. See Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, part 58 (21 CFR part 58). Comments may be submitted at any time.  Read more

A broad coalition of farm and business groups filed a brief Friday in support of 13 states challenging the EPA’s 2015 “Waters of the United States” rule before a federal district court in North Dakota. The brief explains how EPA repeatedly broke the law in writing a rule that would vastly expand its Clean Water Act regulatory authority to cover small and isolated land and water features.  Read more

The two “Ps” of the meat industry – poultry and pork – face many of the same challenges in today’s market as consumption of both proteins continues to grow and expected production increases have analysts weighing the impact and possible outcomes. During a June 4 presentation at the Sosland Purchasing Seminar, Christine McCracken, an executive director at Rabobank focusing on animal protein, discussed how both segments face headwinds when it comes to labor shortages at processing plants now and in the foreseeable future, but issues such as the impact of retaliatory tariffs on exports and trade conflicts are bigger hurdles for pork than for poultry.

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China will impose temporary anti-dumping measures on imports of Brazilian chicken meat, it said on Friday, at the same time as the United States pressures Beijing to reopen its market to American poultry products.

Chinese importers of Brazilian chicken will be required to pay deposits ranging from 18.8 percent to 38.4 percent of the value of their shipments from June 9, the commerce ministry said in a statement.

A preliminary ruling from the ministry found that Chinese producers had been “substantially damaged” by shipments from Brazil between 2013 and 2016, when the country supplied more than half of China’s imports of chicken meat.

The anti-dumping measures are another blow to Brazilian meatpackers, who are still recovering from a food safety scandal last year and a May truckers’ protest that forced farms to cull some 70 million chickens due to a lack of feed.  Read more

Rarely has President Trump’s role as a disrupter on the world stage been starker. At a moment of tumult over trade and nuclear security, he is shaking up the international order to make friends with America’s enemies and enemies out of America’s friends.

A businessman and entertainer with no diplomatic experience, Mr. Trump arrived at the White House nearly 17 months ago convinced that the economic and geopolitical alignments that have governed the world for seven decades were out of whack and biased against the United States. Read more

Over the past 20 years, Brazil emerged as U.S. farmers’ main rival in the global export markets, with significant trade in corn, soybeans, cotton, coffee, sugar, beef, and several other commodities. With a seemingly ideal climate, large landmass, and inexpensive labor, farms and agribusiness entities in the country continue to exploit their competitive advantages on the global stage. Read more