Food Inflation Hitting Chinese Amid Swine Flu Outbreak

(BEIJING, CHINA) Food prices continue to increase in China, as the country doubles-down in a trade war with the United States. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Chinese consumers are paying ten percent more, year-over-year for food. The increase is due to a 24 percent increase in fruit prices and a 46.7 percent increase in pork prices – kindled by an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) that has led to the loss of over 100 million hogs in the country. Over the past month, pork prices in China have increased more than 23 percent as officials look to protein suppliers from countries other than the U.S. to feed the demand. The trade war – no more than a year old – was initiated by President Trump who cited seven prime issues with China and White House chief trade adviser Peter Navarro says the United States will not back down. The “seven deadly sins”, according to Navarro include cyber intrusions; forced technology transfer; theft of intellectual property; illegal subsidies to state-owned enterprises; dumping of products in U.S. markets; currency manipulation; and lax regulation of fentanyl (which has contributed to the U.S. opioid crisis). The dispute hit a new chord last month as Trump added new tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese imports, citing their failure to buy more U.S. agricultural goods in spite of repeated promises to do so. Navarro explained to Yahoo Finance over the weekend that the starting point for talks is a 150-page agreement dealing with all seven issues, plus enforcement, that Beijing agreed to earlier this year, before backing away from the deal. Talks are scheduled for October in Washington, DC.