A top Chinese agriculture official said Friday that its tariffs on U.S. agricultural exports won’t affect China that much, because it can buy whatever it wants from the rest of the world.
“Levying additional tariffs will cause a great decrease in the export of U.S. agricultural products to China,” Han Jun, vice minister of agriculture and rural affairs, told China Daily.
“But the impact on China is very limited, due to China’s multiple import resources,” Han added. “If a trade war breaks out between China and the U.S., many other countries will be willing and capable of replacing the U.S.’s share of agricultural products in the Chinese market.”
[Related: ‘Point of no return’ draws closer in U.S.-China trade standoff]
Trump has ratcheted up the trade war with China by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, and than by imposing tariffs on $34 billion worth of other Chinese imports to protest China’s lack of protections for intellectual property.
The U.S. is set to hit another $16 billion worth of Chinese goods later this month. In response, China has hit U.S. exports with corresponding tariffs, and farm exports in particular, as a way to pressuring Republicans around the country to get Trump to back down.
Han also warned that its decision to switch suppliers away from the U.S. would do long-term damage to American farmers, many of whom spent years trying to crack open China’s market.
“Once other countries have become reliable suppliers of agricultural goods for China, it will be very difficult for U.S. agricultural producers to regain the Chinese market,” he said.
U.S. farmers are bracing for new government data from July, which is expected to show that their exports to China are starting to drop. China’s first round of tariff hikes on U.S. exports began July 6.
