As many of you are aware China filed at the end of December, claims that U.S. distiller’s dried grains with or without solubles (DDGS) is being dumped into China’s market at prices below what is sold in the United States or a third country.

To this end, the U.S. Grains Council is taking a lead facilitating role in helping ethanol plants and marketers of DDGS with the registration process in China. So far 30 ethanol plants and marketers in the United States have requested help with the process.

The cost of registering your ethanol plant will be somewhere between $3000 dollars and $6000 dollars depending upon the final number of those requesting help with registration.

It is our understanding that those who register will be assigned a lower tariff if one is put into place and those that do not register will be at a higher tariff.

If you are exporting DDGS to China (directly or indirectly) or if you think you will in the future export DDGS to China you should register. If you never, ever plan to directly or indirectly) export to China registration is not important.

The following statement was released this morning from the U.S. Grains Council.

“U.S. companies that wish to participate in this industry effort should e-mail the Council at grains@grains.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with contact information by COB Friday, Jan. 7, 2011. From there, legal counsel will contact each participant and provide the necessary registration form and instructions. The registration form must be completed and returned to the law firm by COB Monday, Jan. 10. From there, the law firm will assume responsibility for translation and submission to China’s Ministry of Commerce by its Jan. 17 Beijing deadline.”

Unfortunately, this appears to be a fast-moving issue and registrations are due back to the law firm by Monday, Jan. 10^th.