It all started with tariffs on steel and aluminum–on even our closest allies. Then, Canada pushed back. So did China. According to a CNN report on June 15:
Beijing said Friday it will fight back with tariffs of its own. China previously outlined plans to respond with retaliatory tariffs on $50 billion of US products such as cars, planes and soybeans.
Soybeans. Sound sorta innocuous, doesn’t it? Well, according to the Nebraska Farmer,
[W]hile Nebraska is the Cornhusker State and the Beef State . . . Nebraska soybeans benefit the most from exports . . .
According to THE OKLAHOMAN, Oklahoma farmers exported roughly $52 million worth of soybeans in 2015, much of that to China.
And then there’s this:
Everything you see, all the way to the treeline in the distance, some 200 acres of my family’s farm in Oklahoma, all recently planted in, you guessed it, soybeans.
Take a look at some of the products China is placing tariffs on, according to THE OKLAHOMAN. In response to Trump’s first round of tariffs,
China [retaliated] by placing tariffs on 128 categories of American goods, including pork, fruits and nuts. These tariffs affect only about 2 percent of the U.S. goods exported to China — but they impact the farmers who produce those goods. Pistachio farmers in California, for example, export 55 percent of their crop to China.
In addition, in reaction to Trump’s threats to levy even more tariffs on 1,300 Chinese-made products including flat-screen TVs, aircraft parts, medical devices and shoes, China threatened to levy tariffs on 106 more U.S. products, including soybeans, corn, cotton, sorghum, wheat, cars and aerospace.
It’s not difficult to see who is bearing the brunt of the trade war: US farmers and consumers.
What are these tariffs going to do to our markets here in the US? How are they going to affect the prices farmers receive for their goods? How will it affect how much you spend for your groceries?
In case you were wondering . . .