CHINA

USDA Sees Leap in Farm Exports: Sales of U.S. agricultural products to China are likely to surpass $2 billion this year, nearly double last year’s level and the highest since 1982, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. Cotton and corn exports are forecast to set records, and sales of wheat, soybean oil and other farm products are booming. Last year, sales almost tripled, climbing to $1.1 billion from $440 million in 1993. Sales of U.S. farm products to China have surged in the past two years because of a Communist Party shift toward self-sufficiency for each province, which causes shortages for individual provinces of commodities not grown there.