Chinese traders warned of buying Argentina's soyaoil

A trade body under China's Ministry of Commerce urged traders in a meeting not to buy soyaoil from Argentina, a trader who attended the meeting said on Wednesday. The trader cited officials at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Foodstuffs, part of the Ministry of Commerce, as saying the move was part of a wider trade dispute.
No officials of the Chamber of Commerce or the ministry were immediately available to comment. Traders earlier told Reuters that China's quarantine bureau would restate quality standards for soyaoil imports, effectively restricting shipments of the edible oil from Argentina, the world's largest exporter of soya oil into China. Argentina exported 1.84 million tonnes of soyaoil worth $1.4 billion to China in 2009, accounting for 77 percent of China's total imports at 2.39 million tonnes. The rest mainly came from Brazil.