China
Will soybean growers get the lion’s share of Trump tariff payments?
Soybeans are the largest U.S. farm export to China, and growers of the oilseed may be in line for huge federal payments, worth an average of $85 an acre, to offset the impact of retaliatory Chinese tariffs. Corn growers, meanwhile, might not get enough per acre to buy a cup of coffee at many restaurants.
Anxiety mounts in farm country as details lag on Trump’s tariff-driven bailout
With commodity prices dropping and farm income projected to plummet, America’s farmers are growing increasingly anxious over the lack of specifics about how much money they’re going to get, and when they’re going to get it, from President Trump’s $12-billion bailout, reports The Wall Street Journal.
New buyers elusive, U.S. builds a mountain of soybeans
U.S. farmers will reap a record-large soybean crop in the middle of a trade war with China, ordinarily the No. 1 export customer for the most widely grown U.S. crop, with no replacement buyer on the horizon. As a result, said the USDA, farmers can expect the lowest season-average price for soybeans in 12 years and the largest soybean stockpile ever, which likely will hold down prices in the future.
With tariffs in place, China slows pace of soybean imports
Chinese imports of soybeans during July were 8 percent smaller than in June as the nation digested a soy glut at its ports, said AgriCensus on Wednesday. Imports tumbled at the same time that China imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in the escalating tit-for-tat trade war with the United States.
U.S. puts new tranche of tariffs on Chinese goods
The Trump administration is going ahead with 25 percent tariffs on $16 billion in high-tech imports from China, said the U.S. trade representative's office on Tuesday. Customs officers will begin collection of the duties on Aug 23.
How much U.S. aid for soybean growers?
The Trump administration could pay substantial amounts to soybean growers under its $12-billion plan to shield U.S. agriculture from harm in the tariff war with China, said the head of a University of Missouri think tank on Thursday.
Researchers say China can cut soybean imports
Hogs and chickens can be raised successfully on low-protein rations if amino acids are added to their feed at particular stages of their growth, according to research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. As a result, China, the world's largest importer of soybeans which is also in a trade war with the United States, could reduce its use of the oilseed by 5-7 percent, said the Xinhua news agency.
Disruption in U.S. cotton and soy exports loom due to trade war
One of the world's largest grain companies warned of a "skinny export season" for U.S. soybeans and an intergovernmental body said the United States might need to seek new markets for its cotton due to President Trump's trade war with China. Meanwhile, the Trump administration threatened on Wednesday to put 25-percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports as leverage for reform.
‘Tariffs are working big time,’ says Trump; China threatens counterpunch
‘Farmers are smart,’ won’t need more aid, says Perdue
U.S. farmers and ranchers were blindsided by the Trump trade war, but they will adapt quickly to lower commodity prices and disruptions in the export market, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday. “Farmers are smart,” he said, swatting down the idea that the White House will write another agriculture aid package after earmarking up to $12 billion for this year.
U.S. risks being left behind in ag trade race, says Roberts
Agricultural trade is a tool for growth, not a weapon of diplomacy, said Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts in warning that U.S. tariffs against trade partners are endangering America’s reputation as a reliable source of food.
‘It’s really up to China,’ says Perdue in assessing course of trade war
The USDA began preparing for a trade war with China last fall, before President Trump confronted Beijing over unfair practices or imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Tuesday. Perdue said he would prefer a speedy settlement of the tit-for-tat battle of tariffs, but, "It's really up to China."
In trade war volley, U.S. asks WTO to overrule tit-for-tat tariffs
On Monday, the United States asked the World Trade Organization to swat down retaliatory duties levied by China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, and Turkey on U.S. exports as a violation of WTO rules. The move is the latest in the tit-for-tat trade war that began in April.
As commodity prices fall, Trump says ag exports will be ‘better than ever before’
Senators signaled their strong dissatisfaction with President Trump’s policy of trade warfare on Wednesday, while Trump said, falsely, that “farmers have done poorly for 15 years,” and pledged to remove trade barriers so that U.S. exports flow “better than ever before.”
Biggest Trump tariff damage to ag may appear in the long run
President Carter imposed the 1980 Soviet grain embargo to punish the Soviet Union for its invasion of Afghanistan, an inexact analogue for the Sino-U.S. trade war that started in April. All the same, an analysis of the embargo suggests the greatest damage to the U.S. farm sector may be a diminished role in the world market over the long run rather than a short-term loss of exports, write four university economists.
Both China and U.S. will feel the pain of a soybean trade war
U.S. soybean exports will be down a quarter-billion bushels in the coming year due to steep Chinese tariffs on the oilseed, estimated the USDA on Thursday. In a boomerang effect of the U.S.-China trade war, Brazil would indisputably replace the United States as the world’s largest soybean grower as China scouts, without full success, for alternative soy suppliers.
Loyalty leavens Farm Belt concern over ag tariffs, say senators
President Trump enjoys an unusual amount of tolerance from the farmers and ranchers who are the targets of retaliatory tariffs by U.S. trading partners, said Republican senators on Tuesday. "They're clearly concerned, as I am," said Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt. "It's hard to win a trade war."
Trade war hits U.S. beef, dairy, and pork producers
In a video posted Monday on social media, the U.S. cattle industry predicted it would be shut out of the Chinese market and lose an estimated $70 million in beef sales this year due to retaliatory tariffs. Groups representing pork and dairy producers expressed similar concerns.
Mexico to displace China as top corn importer
China will remain the leading importer of soybeans and cotton, but Mexico will be the world's largest corn importer for the rest of this decade, said the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. The United States would be the top corn exporter despite increased competition from Brazil, said the University of Missouri think tank in updating its international marketing baseline.