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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 003401 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USDA/ERS 
STATE PASS USDA/FAS/OSTA CHINA DESK 
STATE PASS USDA/OGA 
STATE PASS USTR FOR STRATFORD 
TREASURY FOR OASIA 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SNAR SENV EAGR ETRD ECON CH VN
 
SUBJECT: SMUGGLING OF FOOD PRODUCTS INCREASES ON CHINA'S SOUTHERN 
BORDER 
 
Refs: A) HANOI 164, B) 08 GUANGZHOU 366, C) 08 HANOI 409 
 
(U) This cable is Sensitive But Unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) U.S. exports of agricultural products smuggled into China 
have surged due to an increase in politically motivated trade 
restrictions.  China's border with Vietnam has become a prime 
transit point for trade in beef, pork, and poultry.  A smuggler 
involved in this trade recently described how this trade flourishes 
along China's southern border.  END SUMMARY. 
 
EXPORTS SKYROCKET TO VIETNAM, BUT WHERE'S THE BEEF? 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) U.S. beef exports to Vietnam spiked at $171,000 in 2003 
only to drop back to $9,000 in 2004 due to an outbreak of BSE in the 
United States.  When Vietnam joined the WTO, U.S. beef exports to 
Vietnam shot to over $5 million in 2005 and then skyrocketed to $27 
million in 2007.  In 2008, the increase in U.S. beef export trade to 
Vietnam was meteoric, increasing over 362% to $124.8 million. 
According to USDA's Office of Agricultural Affairs in Vietnam, this 
fantastic rise in exports shows no sign of slowing down, and even 
with the current global economic downturn and tight credit market, 
indicators point to another record year.  For the first five months 
of 2009, U.S. beef exports to Vietnam are $81.3 million, already 65 
percent of the total for 2008. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) What is driving this growth and where is the beef going? 
Although U.S. beef is now available from select outlets and very 
high end restaurants in major cities of Vietnam, this accounts for 
only a tiny fraction of the export trade.  Reportedly up to 95% of 
U.S. beef exports to Vietnam are bound for China, where U.S. beef is 
banned due to BSE. 
 
POROUS BORDER WITH VIETNAM 
-------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) From October 19-21, Agricultural Attach Mark Petry and 
Agricultural Specialist Jiang Junyang visited the southern part of 
Guangxi Province on a sugar reporting trip.  Guangxi produces about 
60 percent of China's sugar and this industry is the largest 
agricultural sector, employer, and land use in the province.  We 
decided to stay the night in Pingxiang City after visiting sugar 
mills in that area.  Our driver contacted a friend in that city and 
arranged at dinner at which the friend revealed that he was an 
entrepreneur engaged in smuggling.  The account of his job 
correlates very closely to previous accounts provided to FAS China 
second-hand and to the account provided by the FAS Office of 
Agricultural Affairs and Agricultural Trade Office Hanoi in FAS 
Internal News Report titled "Mong Cai" from July 2009. 
 
¶5. (SBU)  The "entrepreneur" was surprisingly open about his 
activities and described the process in detail.  He said that he was 
very active in sourcing agricultural products from Vietnam, though 
recently focused on non-agricultural goods and only provides 
"logistics" for the food trade.  Last year, he said that he 
specialized in imports of U.S., Canadian and Brazilian beef, pork 
and poultry and exports of Chinese rice.  He noted that his friends 
in the business have recently added significant amounts of pork to 
their shipments north.  He showed a picture on his cell phone of 
U.S. commercial classifications of chicken feet to demonstrate his 
knowledge.  [Note.  U.S. beef has been barred from China due to BSE 
restrictions since 2004, while pork has only recently been banned 
due to H1/N1 restrictions.  While not banned for the most part, 
various restrictions increase commercial risk for exporting U.S. 
poultry to China. Chinese rice is less expensive than Vietnamese due 
to subsidies and tight export restrictions.  End Note.] 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The entrepreneur said that the majority of the smuggling 
operations in the Pingxiang area occur at night at a small clearing 
on the river that separates China and Vietnam.  While the operation 
is large scale and well-known locally, he said that conducting the 
operations in the day light was non-negotiable with the local 
authorities.  Basically, it is just a clearing in the forest on each 
side of the river that has access to a road.  In the case of frozen 
 
BEIJING 00003401  002 OF 003 
 
 
meat products, semi-trucks with refrigerated containers first pull 
up to the Vietnamese side.  The containers are unloaded by hand and 
the boxes of meat are carried down to small boats for the river 
crossing.  The small boats carry about 5-8 tons each trip and, on 
average, it takes about 5 trips to ferry one container-load of meat 
to the Chinese side.  The boxes were then restacked in a waiting 
truck, generally bound for the wholesale markets in Guangdong.  At 
this location, the man said that the transfer of 18 containers (760 
metric tons) was the record in one night. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The contact noted that the value of high-end meat cargo 
could be as much as 2 million RMB ($293,000).  For some cuts of U.S. 
beef, the MFN tariff rate is 20 percent, the VAT rate is 13-17 
percent, and there are additional customs and quarantine clearance 
fees.  Thus, direct fees alone can easily reach 40 percent of the 
value of the shipment.  Avoiding the customs fees alone could gross 
a smuggler 800,000 RMB ($118,000) per container.  On that record 
night, the smuggling organization could have made 11.2 million RMB 
($1.6 million) on high-end U.S. beef. Additionally, the wholesale 
mark-up could be 50 percent and the retail/food service mark-up over 
100 percent.  If the smugglers had direct contacts in the food 
service industry, their profit would have been much greater. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) As noted above, the contact said that he stopped his 
active involvement in most of the smuggling activity related to 
foreign food products.  He noted that there are other opportunities 
that are not so labor intensive.  He said that he is now involved in 
the export of Chinese fertilizer to Vietnam through an exclusive 
supply agreement with Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture.  He claimed 
that he receives a free trade arrangement from both sides.  [Note: 
China had 100 percent plus export tariffs on fertilizers for much of 
2008.]  When we visited the Pingxiang Border Economic Cooperation 
Area/Youyi Guan border point, the man pointed out one of the lanes 
is dedicated to smuggled electronics, but that the "facilitation" 
costs of this trade are too high for him. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) While at the checkpoint, one could see why it could be 
relatively easy to conduct an operation even within sight of the 
customs house.  First, many local people are granted special access 
passes to work and conduct trade in special border areas where goods 
are stored and housed.  They drive vehicles and walk among these 
areas on each side of the border, but within a designated area. 
Additionally, there was also a clearly visible footpath on the side 
of the mountain going around the border control point where people 
could be seen walking back and forth over the formal border with 
various goods.  Lastly, all the customs documents for goods 
transiting the border are processed in these special trade areas. 
With all the people and customs officials milling around, it does 
not seem hard to slip in forged documents or pay for the right stamp 
in the confusion. 
 
BIG BUSINESS FOR BORDER AREA 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) FAS Vietnam contacts report that when the border is fully 
open at all points, the number of refrigerated containers that pass 
daily is estimated from 50 to 300.  They believe that Mong Cai, in 
Vietnam's Quang Ninh province, is the main border post for such 
containers going to China, but thought is being given to using 
border gates in Lang Son province, where the roads are much better 
and thus transportation cost would be less.  FAS Vietnam reports 
that its contacts believe that Vietnam has no plans to curtail this 
lucrative transhipment trade which provides an important income 
stream for Vietnam from port charges, as well as a significant 
source of employment for local labor.  With a 1,200 KM border 
between relatively poor provinces on each side, it is hardly 
surprising that the trade flourishes. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Most in the agriculture trade community believe that 
China's policies encourage and sustain this trade.  China's openness 
to trade in agriculture and food trade grew rapidly after their 2001 
WTO accession and the number and types of products imported soared. 
However, following the lead of many countries, China has 
 
BEIJING 00003401  003 OF 003 
 
 
increasingly used sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to limit and 
direct trade.  The trend toward more non-tariff trade barriers 
against key third countries is particularly pronounced in the large 
trade of meat and poultry products.  While the trade in semi-legal 
or smuggled products has generally been replaced with direct imports 
in recent years, politically motivated trade barriers have caused a 
different trend in China's imports of meat products. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Generally speaking, importers in South China prefer to 
import directly into China.  However, smuggling routes through Hong 
Kong and Vietnam remain and, in some cases, are growing as a "cost 
effective" option.  While not a preference, the Chinese suppliers 
will meet demand through the grey channel when necessary. If China 
continues to expand non-scientific trade barriers, big profits in 
the food trade are going to continue to encourage criminality along 
China's southern border. 
 
GOLDBERG