Allen Johnson, the US's chief agricultural trade negotiator, has raised complaints from the American farm industry with Chinese officials that China was exporting farm produce at prices below the estimated cost of production, the Financial Times said. The immediate concern was China's sale of 3m tonnes of maize to South Korea earlier this year, but US producers were also concerned by wheat and cotton exports.
Beijing agreed not to introduce export subsidies for farm products when it signed up to the World Trade Organisation.