Removing Nontariff Import Barriers Could Increase China's Impiorts of Pork, Beef

China imported more than $205 billion of agricultural products in 2021, including more than $37 billion from the United States. Despite this value of trade, China’s agricultural imports appear to remain short of their full potential, especially for certain commodities. Over the past two decades, China has opened trade borders through tariff cuts and by reducing direct Government intervention in foreign trade. For example, the U.S. Economic and Trade Agreement (Phase One) with China, signed in 2020, included provisions that address dozens of such barriers. Still, impediments to bilateral trade growth remain, including nontariff measures such as quotas, differences in standards, bans on certain inputs, bans due to disease, detection of weed seeds for foreign material in shipments, or strict certification requirements for exporters. The existence of these barriers limit trade even with tariff reductions.