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Posts Tagged: trade
China offers California businesses opportunities and risks
The recent U.S. visit by China's president Hu Jintau has California experts considering opportunities for trade with the world's most populous country, according to an article in the Bakersfield Californian.
The story said China's manipulation of its currency is among the most significant barriers to trade between the two countries. China has resisted currency reform, but a CSU Bakersfield economist told reporter Courtenay Edelhart that the country will have to adapt if it wants to realize its superpower aspirations.
Edelhart spoke to UC Davis agricultural economist Colin Carter about agricultural trade with China. He said California farmers grow many of the same products as China, but Americans are stronger in food processing and technology, and have the advantage of a much more efficient industry structure.
"In China, the farmers still don't own the land they work, and the individual farms are pretty small," Carter was quoted. "To really compete on a global scale, the farms are going to have to get a lot bigger and more mechanized."
Interim director of CSU Bakersfield's Small Business Development Center. John Pryor, said local companies interested in the Chinese market should guard their competitive edge carefully.
"Any U.S. firm needs to be very cautious about their intellectual property risks. The Chinese have a long-standing reputation for stealing patented products or processes," Pryor told the reporter.
Chinese president Hu Jintau visited President Obama at the White House last week.
Honey, They're in Galveston
If you're looking for your favorite beekeepers, apiculturists and bee researchers, odds are you won't find them. Unless you're in Galveston,...
A. G. Kawamura and Susan Cobey
Governor wants more trade with South Korea
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, on a trade mission in Asia, signed an agreement with South Korea yesterday to increase collaboration on trade and technology, according to a San Francisco Chronicle column by Andrew S. Ross. Today the governor was scheduled to call for ratification of the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement.
The state's current trade relationship with South Korea includes exports of $500 million in California agricultural products - beef, rice, nuts, oranges. UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner, told Ross South Korea is an ideal export market for the state.
Dairies fear free trade with New Zealand
American dairy operators are asking the Obama Administration to protect them from an increase in New Zealand dairy exports to the U.S., according to an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. But Daniel Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, believes the American farmers' worries are overblown.
"They're making wild claims," Sumner was quoted in the story.
Obama's trade negotiators begin talks next week in Australia on a regional trade agreement that may make it easier for New Zealand dairy operators to ship products to the U.S.
American dairy farmers are concerned because they are still recovering from nearly two years of severe losses, wrote WSJ reporter Lauren Etter. Last year, milk prices fell to 30-year lows.
New Zealand's open space and mild climate have helped it become one of the world's lowest-cost dairy producers. Its inhabitants can consume only a fraction of the milk and related products made there.
Sumner told the reporter that New Zealand dairy products entering the U.S. would put some downward pressure on U.S. dairy prices. But he said the U.S. economy would benefit from trade in other industries that will likely outweigh the hardships for dairy farmers.
Daniel Sumner.
Almond industry's long boom is running out of steam
The Sacramento Bee* reported bad news for California almond growers, but the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner, still had encouraging words for the industry.
According to the Bee story, written by Jim Downing, almond prices dropped more than 30 percent from August to December, the market for orchard real estate has gone cold, and the industry expects to be left with a 300 million pound surplus when the 2009 harvest begins in August.
Making matters still worse is a looming drought. West Side farmer John Diener told the reporter he plans to fallow 3,000 acres of land in order to concentrate what water he will have available on his 750 acres of almonds, which represent millions of dollars of investment.
But Sumner expressed confidence in California almonds. The state, he said, is the dominant global almond producer, holding more than 80 percent of the market. There are no serious competitors on the horizon.
"I still think they have a very strong long-term future," Sumner was quoted in the article.
Speaking of Dan Sumner, the UC Davis ag economist was also cited in a Reuters story today about President Barack Obama's pledge to cut subsidies to big U.S. farm businesses.
Some trade experts believe reducing payments to U.S. farmers would be looked on favorably by the rest of the world and that the move would renew the Doha round of WTO talks. But Sumner indicated that direct payments are not as trade-distorting as other subsidies that go up when prices plunge or crops fail.
"A cut in direct payments would do little or nothing for the talks," Sumner was quoted in the article. "It is hard to see the current (U.S.) leadership moving forward on trade opening or paying much attention to the WTO."
*The almond story was attributed to the Sacramento Bee, moved on the McClatchy wire and was picked up by various outlets, however, I could not find it on the SacBee Web site.
A California almond orchard in bloom.
