U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Michael Scuse, who led a trade mission of representatives from nine state departments of agriculture and 28 U.S. companies to northeast China in 2014, announced that United States ethanol exports to China have increased exponentially.
Scuse stated, “U.S. ethanol exports to China have jumped from $8 million to more than $86 million since our May 2014 visit. In October, we exported more ethanol to China than in the previous 10 years combined.”
Ethanol production in America is subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars each year by the government. This production has grown since an increasing number of taxpayer dollars have been added to subsidy.
Taken together, this means that Americans are subsidizing ethanol for China.
Ethanol producers stand to gain massively from this and are going to great lengths to protect this subsidy. The ethanol industry is spending money to attack Ted Cruz, the most prominent opponent of ethanol subsidies among the Republican presidential candidates.