China finally signed off on the sanitary and phytosanitary protocols to open its market to U.S. rice in July, but now America’s farmers, millers and shippers are again waiting on the Chinese to finish the bureaucratic process that will allow exports to begin flowing. It took more than a decade to get China to agree to the protocols that were officially signed on July 19, but now U.S. government and industry officials are optimistic it will be just a few more months until China begins importing its first shipments of U.S. rice. But first a delegation of officials from China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) – the Chinese equivalent of USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) – has to visit and confirm that U.S. rice mills, storage and port facilities conform to the protocols that were agreed upon.