Senator urges U.S. administration to help blueberry growers, quickly resolve trade dispute with China

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Senator Angus King from the state of Maine on Wednesday urged the current administration to help wild blueberry growers whose livelihood has been put at risk by the U.S.-initiated trade dispute against China.

"The wild blueberry, an iconic Maine agricultural product, has lost a piece of its future," King said in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue.

This year, King said, Maine blueberry farmers sent only 61,000 U.S. dollars of their crop to China by September. If the trend continues, the trade dispute will lead to a 96.75-percent decrease in the value of Maine's wild blueberry exports to China from the 2017 level, he said.

Maine's wild blueberry is not the only agricultural product that the administration's Chinese trade policies have harmed, the senator said, adding "Wheat, soybean, and cranberry farmers also have seen dramatic declines in their Chinese sales."

However, wild blueberry growers have received no additional federal trade aid to "compensate them for the substantial losses" the U.S. trade dispute with China has caused them, King noted, urging the USTR and USDA to treat these wild blueberry growers fairly.

The senator also called for the U.S. administration to "resolve the trade war with China quickly" and administer agricultural assistance programs "fairly, transparently, and rationally."

The letter came after American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall on Tuesday urged the U.S. administration to reach a trade deal with China soon.

"A trade agreement with a market as important as China's must be a priority. Further delay in reaching an agreement would make it hard for struggling farmers to hold on in the face of rising bankruptcy rates," Duvall said in a statement.

"The more time that passes, the more difficult it will be to win back this important export market, regardless of any trade agreement," Duvall said, adding the trade aid payments "are not making farmers whole." Enditem

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