A group representing thousands of U.S. soybean growers warned Wednesday that President Trump’s trade war against China will significantly hurt them, as China buys nearly two-thirds of all U.S. soybean exports.
“This is no longer a hypothetical, and a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans into China will have a devastating effect on every soybean farmer in America,” said American Soybean Association president John Heisdorffer.
China said Wednesday it would impose that tariff on U.S. exports of soybeans and many other products if the U.S. follows through with tariffs against $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. President Trump is moving toward those tariffs as retaliation for restrictive Chinese trade policies.
Heisdorffer said even the threat of a tariff war with China is hurting the market.
“Soybean futures are already down nearly 40 cents a bushel as of this morning,” he said. “At a projected 2018 crop of 4.3 billion bushels, soybean farmers lost $1.72 billion in value for our crop this morning alone.”
“That’s real money lost for farmers, and it is entirely preventable,” he said.
He added that Trump has ignored his request for a meeting that he made nearly a month ago.
“China has said that its 25 percent tariff will only go into effect based on the course of action the administration takes,” he said. “We call on President Trump to engage the Chinese in a constructive manner — not a punitive one — and achieve a positive result for soybean farmers.”
