US ethanol takes the slow boat to China in order to avoid import tariffs

In China, Reuters reports that by taking advantage of trade rules that allow ethanol to enter the country duty-free if blended with 40% Asian-origin fuel, US-origin ethanol was able to enter the Chinese market after a two-month journey, a stop in Malaysia, and ship-to-ship transfer. So far since the China-US trade war kicked off last summer and a 70% tariff was slapped on US-origin ethanol, Malaysia has exported 69,000 metric tons of ethanol to China despite not producing ethanol while Malaysia also imported 88,000 tons of the fuel from the US.