Our first visit was to the US Consulate in Shanghai. We met with Stephen Jacques from the US Commercial Service and David Kiefner from the Agricultural Trade Office of the US Foreign Agricultural Service. The ATO covers food and fiber, and the Commercial Service covers everything else. Mr. Jacques and Mr. Kiefner provided general background information for the rest of our visit
A couple of interesting statistics. China's ag imports increased from $10B in 2001 to $30B in 2006. US ag exports to China increased from $2B to $8B in the same period. Much of that was soybeans for livestock. Only $600M of the $8B was consumer products.
See the web sites for more info. For example, the ATO web site has a report dated 8/20/07 on trade between the US and China in wood products.
