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Chinese Team Visits Tobacco Fields, Eyes US Trade
In a field still drying from morning rain, four Chinese tobacco inspectors got their first close look Monday at a crop in Oxford, North Carolina that US growers hope will someday go up in smoke on the other side of the globe.
The inspectors, feet wrapped in clear plastic booties to protect their shoes from the mud, listened as Bill Clements, superintendent of a nearby federal-state agricultural research station, explained how farmers grow tobacco in a typical field.
The visit came at the start of a three-week tour of tobacco farms, warehouses and other sites in North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky. Farmers, sellers and manufacturers hope the inspections will result in sales to China, which has restricted American leaf for 11 years due to concerns over blue mold.
"We want to drive home the point that blue mold will not be introduced to China through our cured leaf," said Jim Graham, North Carolina commissioner of agriculture.
An agreement lifting the ban as of Nov. 30 was signed last month, after the US House of Representatives voted in May to extend normal trade relations.
Congress has yet to grant China permanent normal trade status with the United States, though trade relations have been approved year to year. China is also under pressure to open its markets as it seeks membership in the World Trade Organization, which Congress has backed.
"China is a huge market and we know American -- especially North Carolina -- tobacco is very famous," said Shi Zongwei, assistant director of China's Institute of Animal and Plant Quarantine. "In anticipation of joining the World Trade Organization, we certainly welcome all agricultural products that are eligible into our country."
Inspector Wu Pinshan said the group is bringing back sample leaf from the farms and packing houses visited, then will test them for blue mold at North Caroline State University labs.
China's estimated 320 million smokers smoked one-third of the world's cigarettes, consuming about 2.5 million metric tons of tobacco last year, more than three times the amount used in the United States.
Industry officials estimate that opening the Chinese market to US leaf could mean additional sales of up to US$140 million a year. But US officials have warned those figures could be too optimistic because US tobacco is relatively expensive.
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