15/07/2010 (Bloomberg) - China, the world's biggest user of cooking oils, and Argentina remain in talks about China's embargo on imports of soybean oil from the South American nation, according to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

If China continued to restrict shipments, Argentina can sell its soybean oil to other countries, such as India, Fernandez told executives during a visit to Shanghai today. Argentina had been the largest supplier of the commodity.

China halted shipments in April as part of a dispute over antidumping measures. The Asian government in May told companies including Cofco Ltd., the grain trader, that it will maintain the embargo and buyers should seek Brazilian and U.S. supplies.

"The trade between us needs to be equal and beneficial to both sides," Fernandez said today, speaking through a Chinese translator in response to a question. "We are now selling soybeans and soybean oil to India"

Argentina's Agricultural Minister Julian Dominguez told reporters last month that the two nations were on "good course" to resolve the dispute. The government was working to adjust production to meet Chinese standards, Dominguez said then.

Fernandez is in China for a five day visit at the head of a trade delegation from South America's second-largest economy, with today the final day of the trip. China agreed to work on rail projects worth at least $12 billion in Argentina, according to a statement yesterday from the Argentine embassy in Beijing.

China imported 784,157 metric tons of soybean oil in the six months from Oct. 1, according to customs data. Argentina supplied 80 percent, while Brazilian exports represented 19.2 percent, according to calculations by Bloomberg.

Soybean oil and rival palm oil are the world's most consumed edible oils, accounting for more than 60 percent of the global market, and Argentina is the third-largest exporter of soybeans after the U.S. and Brazil. Soybean oil futures have lost about 5 percent this year and traded today at 38.77 cents a pound on the Chicago Board of Trade.