A ship carrying U.S. soybeans arrived at a Chinese port on Sunday, becoming one of the first American soybean shipments to incur new tariffs imposed by Beijing as part of a trade war between the two countries.
The ship had been anchored off China’s coast for more than a month amid the uncertainty of the trade fight before docking in the port of Dalian, Reuters reports. It was uncertain if it would arrive before the tariffs were implemented.
Peak Pegasus is carrying 70,000 tons of U.S. soybeans. It arrived off China’s coast on July 6 shortly after Beijing imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion worth of U.S. goods, including soybeans.
The move came in response to President Trump hitting China with tariffs on $34 billion worth of imports to punish Beijing for what the administration says is unfair trade practices, including China’s failure to respect U.S. intellectual property rights and its policy of “forced technology transfer.”
The trade conflict is escalating.
China last week said it would impose retaliatory 25 percent tariffs on $16 billion worth of U.S. imports, after the Trump administration issued similar tariffs against China. Two other ships carrying U.S. soybeans, Star Jennifer and Cemtex Pioneer, have been anchored off China’s coast for the past few weeks, Reuters said.
The U.S. exports more soybeans to China than any other agricultural product, with the trade worth $12.7 billion in 2017.
Soybean farms in the Midwest have complained Trump’s tariffs are harming their business, lowering soybean prices.
