China Makes Major US Pork Purchase Despite Steep Import Tariffs, As Hog Virus Takes Toll

Workers cut pork at Park Packing—one of the Chicago's few remaining slaughterhouses—in Chicago, Illinois on July 18, 2015. Karl Plume/Reuters

CHICAGO—China made its biggest purchases of U.S. pork in nearly two years last week, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed on March 14, as Chinese hog prices surged after an outbreak of a deadly swine disease.

Buyers in the world’s biggest hog producer and pork consumer struck deals for the meat despite import tariffs of 62 percent imposed by China on U.S. pork as a consequence of the trade war between the two countries.