China to U.S.: Please stop sending us your junk CNN
Jacopo Prisco
9/15/2017
© STR/AFP/Getty Images This picture taken on March 7, 2014 shows containers waiting to be transported in Qingdao port in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province. China recorded an unexpected trade deficit of 22.98 billion USD in February…
For decades, shipping containers have been loaded with American scrap and waste and dispatched to China for recycling.
It's a $5 billion annual business that is now in danger of sinking.
Beijing notified the World Trade Organization in July that it plans to ban the import of 24 varieties of solid waste, including types of plastic and unsorted paper commonly sent from the U.S.
China said that the ban would take effect from September, giving American companies little time to prepare. ISRI estimates that roughly a fifth of the trade is at risk.
The announcement has made U.S. recyclers that trade with China very nervous.
"In the short term we're going to see a significant drop of exports from the U.S. into China, and there is a little bit of panic in the market," said Adina Adler, an official at the U.S. Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). "We respect what the Chinese government is trying to do ... and we want to be helpful, but they gave us practically no time for any kind of transition," said Adler.
© STR/AFP/Getty Images Cargo containers wait to be transported at a port in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province on October 13, 2016. Trade deficit
Scrap and waste is the sixth largest U.S. export to China.
The trade works like this: A huge number of container ships laden with consumer goods sail each year from China to American ports.
But the U.S. runs a massive trade deficit with China, and there is little demand for space on the return leg, or "backhaul." As a result, shipping companies offer major discounts on return runs to China.
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Poster Comment:
U.S. to China: "Stop sending us your junk." I bought a Made in China Baby Ben wind up alarm clock. The guts stripped out of it and I had to throw it in the trash.