Perdue Happy With Progress Of Trade Talks

While he has no new announcements to make, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says he is encouraged by progress made last week in trade talks with China.

"This is the Vice-Premier of China and he stayed and he was directly involved in the line by line negotiations over these issues, Agriculture included.  There is a product called ractopamine, that's used in the meat industry there, and he had to learn what ractopamine was because they were forbidding that."

Perdue says there were many other Ag issues on the table, including poultry, beef, feed grains, ethanol and more.  China recently agreed to purchase 10 million metric tons of soybeans which the Ag Secretary called a show of good faith.

"We will not be bought off as a Country over purchases without eliminating some of the non-trade barriers that have existed in China and make sure that they have enforceability provisions going forward,” Perdue continued.

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