A Reuters report says the Environmental Protection Agency has awarded tens of millions of dollars’ worth of biofuel blending credits for this year to refiners HollyFrontier and Sinclair Oil. Two sources tell Reuters the refiners argued that the agency had wrongly denied them waivers from the country’s biofuels law as far back as 2014. It’s likely to add fuel to the fire in the ongoing dispute between oil refiners and the renewable fuels industry over the future of America’s biofuels policy by opening the door to similar challenges in the future. The EPA’s move may put even more pressure on credit prices, which have plummeted to five-year lows as the agency has expanded the small refinery waiver program. The EPA gave Hollyfrontier nearly $34 million worth of credits to reverse a denial for one of its Wyoming plants that dated back to 2015. The agency also gave undisclosed millions more to Sinclair for two of its facilities in the state for both 2014 and 2015.

House Ag Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson says that American tariffs on steel and aluminum imports will generate retaliation that will hit farm exports hard. As a result, he’ll be working with House and Senate Ag Committee leaders on a new farm bill to protect farmers from “the market fluctuations caused by these actions.” A USDA spokesman says President Trump “will not allow American agriculture to bear the brunt of retaliatory tactics.” However, in an email to the Hagstrom Report, Peterson says, “That the administration has decided to move forward with these wrongheaded tariffs, even though farmers have repeatedly warned about retaliation from trade partners, shows that the administration isn’t listening or just doesn’t care.” Instead of a farm bill focused on welfare reform, Peterson says he looks forward to working with leadership to craft a bill that protects farmers from the market fluctuations caused by these tariffs. The legislation should also invest in trade promotion to help them rebuild lost markets. The USDA spokesman says the agency is continuing to work to expand existing markets and to come up with new ones for American agricultural products.

A coalition of biofuel and agriculture groups petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to change its regulations to account for lost volumes of renewable fuel resulting from the unprecedented number of retroactive small refinery exemptions from Renewable Fuel Standard obligations recently granted by EPA. The petition comes days after several ethanol and farm groups challenged three specific small refinery exemptions granted by EPA. While the lawsuit in the Tenth Circuit challenged those exemptions as wrongly decided, this petition to EPA seeks a broader, forward-looking remedy to account for the collective lost volumes caused by the unprecedented number of retroactive small refinery exemptions. “EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has had a fire sale on small refiner exemptions for anyone with a stamp and an envelope, making a mockery of the President’s commitment to a 15-billion-gallon RFS for conventional biofuel. This must end. We take no pleasure in having to litigate to protect the integrity of the RFS, but it appears we have no other recourse,” said RFA CEO Bob Dinneen.

BEIJING (AP) — China warned Sunday after another round of talks on a sprawling trade dispute with Washington that any deals they produce “will not take effect” if President Donald Trump’s threatened tariff hike on Chinese goods goes ahead.

The warning came after delegations led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and China’s top economic official, Vice Premier Liu He, wrapped up a meeting on Beijing’s pledge to narrow its trade surplus. Ross said at the start of the event they had discussed specific American exports China might purchase, but the talks ended with no joint statement and neither side released details.

The White House threw the meeting’s status into doubt Tuesday by renewing a threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese high-tech goods in response to complaints Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology. The event went ahead despite that but Beijing said it reserved the right to retaliate.

Tuesday’s announcement revived fears the conflict between the two biggest economies might dampen global growth or encourage other governments to raise their own barriers to imports.

“If the United States introduces trade sanctions including a tariff increase, all the economic and trade achievements negotiated by the two parties will not take effect,” said the Chinese statement, carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.

The negotiating process should be “based on the premise” of not fighting a “trade war,” the statement said.

The American Embassy in Beijing didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump is pressing Beijing to narrow its politically volatile trade surplus with the United States, which reached a record $375.2 billion last year. That comes at the same time Trump has riled some of America’s closest allies with the imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

After a three-day meeting of finance ministers from the G7 industrial nations that ended Saturday in Canada, Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau issued a summary saying the other six members want Trump to hear their message of “concern and disappointment” over the U.S. trade actions.

Allies including Canada and the European Union are threatening retaliatory tariffs.

Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance and economy minister, was blunt in his assessment of the meeting.

“It has been a tense and tough G7 — I would say it’s been far more a G6 plus one than a G7,” said Le Maire, who called the tariffs unjustified.

“We regret that our common work together at the level of the G7 has been put at risk by the decisions taken by the American administration on trade and on tariffs,” he said

U.S. tensions with China had eased after Beijing promised on May 19 to “significantly increase” purchases of farm goods, energy and other products and services following the last round of talks in Washington. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the dispute was “on hold” and the tariff hike would be postponed.

That truce appeared to end with Tuesday’s surprise announcement. It said the White House also will impose curbs on Chinese investment and purchases of U.S. high-tech goods and on visas for Chinese students.

Analysts suggested Trump might be trying to appease critics of his administration’s deal to allow Chinese telecom equipment giant ZTE Corp. to stay in business. They said those political pressures mean the technology-related tariff hikes are likely to go ahead.

Members of Congress criticized the agreement to lift a ban on sales of U.S. components to ZTE, which admitted violating rules on exports to Iran and North Korea. In exchange, the company is to remove its management team, hire American compliance officers and pay a fine.

Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on a total of up to $150 billion of Chinese goods. Tuesday’s announcement gave no indication whether the other increases might also go ahead.

China has threatened to retaliate by raising import duties on a $50 billion list of American goods including soybeans, small aircraft, whiskey, electric vehicles and orange juice. It criticized Tuesday’s announcement but refrained from repeating its earlier threat.

Beijing has resisted U.S. pressure to commit to a firm target of narrowing its annual surplus with the United States by $200 billion.

Private sector analysts say while Beijing is willing to compromise on its trade surplus, it will resist changes that might threaten plans to transform China into a global technology competitor.

Ross was accompanied by agriculture, treasury and trade officials for the meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, a leafy compound on Beijing’s west side. Liu’s delegation included China’s central bank governor and commerce minister.

Ross and Liu held a working dinner Saturday ahead of their talks.

“Our meetings so far have been friendly and frank, and covered some useful topics about specific export items,” said Ross at the opening of Sunday’s meeting.

The U.S. pressure over technology policy reflects growing American concern about China’s status as a potential competitor and complaints Beijing improperly subsidizes its fledgling industries and shields them from competition.

Foreign governments and businesses cite strategic plans such as “Made in China 2025,” which calls for state-led efforts to create Chinese industry leaders in areas from robots to electric cars to computer chips.

Trade analysts had warned Ross’s hand might be weakened by the Trump administration’s decision Thursday to go ahead with tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Europe and Mexico.

That might alienate allies who share complaints about Chinese technology policy and a flood of low-priced steel, aluminum and other exports they say are the result of improper subsidies and hurt foreign competitors.

Senate Ag Committee Chair Pat Roberts has set a date for introducing the Senate Farm Bill, with full debate to take place the following week. A Feedstuffs Dot Com article says Roberts made the announcement at a farm bill forum in his home state, alongside Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue and fellow Kansas Senator Jerry Moran. Roberts says he has a clear path to bringing the bill to the floor of the Senate, as Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised he won’t file cloture on the bill, a potential hurdle that could delay consideration. Roberts did reiterate that the House version of the farm bill wouldn’t pass in the Senate because he’ll need 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. The House version, which hasn’t passed yet, is still relying solely on Republican votes to get through the chamber. Roberts also said the Senate version won’t be proposing any major changes to SNAP, but could possibly look into “some efficiencies we can make as to how that program is run.” He also mentioned that the Senate bill will “fix the ARC program to some degree.”

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced that the U.S. will move forward with steel and aluminum tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. Farmers for Free Trade Executive Director Brian Kuehl says that decision opens the floodgates to billions in new tariffs on American agriculture. The list of countries that are targeting, or planning to target, now includes 28 EU members, our closest trading partners in Canada and Mexico, and the world’s largest export markets in China and India. U.S. Grains Council President and CEO Tom Sleight says his group is deeply concerned about the new tariffs set to be implemented. “Based on the information we’ve heard from our customers and past experience, we have U.S. agriculture, including the products we represent, will be among the first hit by countermeasures from our trading partners,” Sleight says, “and these countries are our closest neighbors and friends. We’ve spent years building these relationships and markets with other countries.”

President Donald Trump is moving ahead with steel and aluminum tariffs on some of the United States’ closest allies and that could result in serious pain for agriculture. Politico says any official documents released by the administration are expected to include some wiggle room for allies. European Union officials are said to be resigned to accepting that some sort of tariffs are coming their way. The EU has vowed to hit back with retaliatory tariffs. A recent list compiled by the EU targeted $3.3 billion worth of U.S. imports. Politico says the list shows products targeted for retaliation were drafted so as not to harm European Union industries. Some of the products are clearly designed to impact Republican-leaning states, such as Kentucky bourbon. Others on the list include rice, peanut butter, orange juice, and cranberries. Canada and Mexico aren’t immune from the tariffs either, and both countries have said they will retaliate. “It’s frankly absurd that we would in any way be considered to be a national security threat to the United States,” says Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.

American producers are suffering from dizziness, thanks to the back-and-forth headlines regarding the U.S.-China trade dispute. Tuesday, the Trump Administration announced it was moving ahead with plans for protecting intellectual U.S. property. Politico says the administration will take steps to impose 25-percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports, plus, establish broad investment restrictions and pursue litigation with the World Trade Organization. But what’s real and what isn’t? Michelle Erickson-Jones, president of the Montana Grain Growers Association, says, “It’s so hard to tell what’s rhetoric and what’s real, though it would surprise me if we went forward with these tariffs.” The level of uncertainty caused by the U.S.-China conflict, as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations, is hard on commodity markets. It also jeopardizes relationships with overseas commodity buyers. Jones says countries are already looking for other buyers. As an example, she points out that Mexico recently purchased wheat from Argentina for the first time in modern history. In spite of the president’s recent tendency to back down on threats against China, they still have to be taken seriously because the country is such an important market for American farmers. Kevin Paap, Minnesota Farm Bureau President, says “It’s an emotional issue for soybean growers. China is our safety net.”