China to restart imports of beef from France

Beijing. June 29. Silkroadnews - China is restarting imports of beef from France, which could lead to a reduction in the share of the U.S. beef market amid unstable trade relations between China and the U.S., the Global Times reports.
China has signed an agreement with France on the import of beef, Reuters reports citing an anonymous Chinese official announcing the agreement.
“China is the second largest importer of beef in the world…so for us, it is a big market of course. Moreover, China's middle class is 300 million people, which is comparable to the total population of the EU (500 million people), which shows again the potential,” the agency quoted saying by Dominique Langlois, representative of Interbev, a French company providing a full cycle of beef production from farm to final product.
According to Reuters, China has become the world’s second largest beef importer, purchasing nearly 700,000 tons of red meat in 2017, worth about $3.3 billion, which is a 20% increase in volume compared to the same period of previous year.
“France is clever enough to try to grab a share of China’s beef market amid Sino-U.S. trade tensions,” the head of the China Society of Macroeconomic Research Center Tian Yun said, adding that compared to other EU countries that can also access the mass market of Chinese beef, France is relatively bigger and, most likely, will gain a foothold in the country.
In 2001, China banned imports of beef from European countries, including France, in response to the epizootic of mad cow disease. In 2003, the ban was extended to include the U.S. beef imports, though later, in September 2016, the U.S. ban was removed.
France is the fourth EU country after Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark, which has resumed import of beef to China.