On Wednesday, December 15 the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced its intention to file a case at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Chinese wheat, corn and rice trade practices. The suit alleges that Chinese tariff-rate quotas (TRQ) for these commodities fail to uphold the country’s obligations under WTO rules. According to USTR, China lacks transparency in the rules for importing commodity grains resulting in underutilization of the TRQs for corn, wheat and rice. USTR estimates that full utilization of the TRQs would have allowed nearly $3.5 billion of imports into China in 2015.

More information on the USTR’s actions against China can be found here.