China is lagging behind in its purchases of energy products under the Phase One agreement, but USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney says they could get there with more ethanol and distillers grains (DDGs).

During a virtual appearance at the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) annual conference this week, McKinney updated attendees on ag trade with a number of different regions, including China. McKinney says the question he gets asked a lot is “Will China make the 36.5 billion in purchases by December 31?”

“It’s looking tough,” he said. “The trajectory is right to meet that across a lot of commodities but we’re waning big time on purchases of energy…We think they could get there in a major way with the purchase of more ethanol and DDGs, but they’ve got to remove the CVDs (Countervailing Duties) on our DDGs.”

Listen to McKinney’s comment here: