Articles Tagged with ''soybeans''

Farm group leaders and lawmakers railed against President Donald Trump’s trade policy and tariffs in a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing today, bemoaning the effects on the ag sector as China, Mexico, Canada, the European Union, Turkey and others retaliate.

The USDA is now confirming what most already know: The Chinese tariffs on U.S. soybeans are taking a toll on U.S. exports.

President Donald Trump is following through with promises to hit China with new tariffs on $200 billion worth of imports, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced today, escalating a trade war that is already hurting the U.S. agriculture sector.

Chinese importers have already stopped buying U.S. wheat, soybean purchases are expected to drop even further, and the U.S. ag sector is expecting the financial pain to increase exponentially as long as the Trump administration persists in a trade war with China.

The U.S. and China are set to hit each other with tariffs on $34 billion worth of goods Friday and neither side is showing signs of changing course. That’s particularly concerning for the U.S. ag sector, the target of most of the tariffs China is preparing to levy on the U.S., and it has farm groups and lawmakers bracing for the worst.

U.S. farmers are planting fewer acres with corn and soybeans this year, while sowing more wheat, cotton and sorghum, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service said in an annual report.