China to launch anti-dumping investigation into US sorghum imports

China will launch an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into imports of sorghum grown in the United States, the Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday, in a sign of increasing trade tensions between the world's top two economies.

The US is the world's top exporter of the grain and China's largest supplier by far, with imports from the US reaching 4.76 million tonnes in 2017, out of just over 5 million tonnes in total.

The grain is largely used to feed China's huge livestock sector, especially when other grains like corn are more expensive.

But preliminary evidence and information obtained by the commerce ministry found that imported sorghum from the US had been exported at a lower than normal value, it said, damaging local producers.