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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Saturday, January 04, 2025
China’s latest promise to reduce tariffs on U.S. soybeans and pork is being lauded as an olive branch ahead of new trade talks early next month, but China also needs more of the commodities to feed its people, according to industry and government analysts.
U.S. dry whey, a key component in swine feed, is just one of the 16 U.S. commodities the Chinese Finance Ministry will exclude from tariffs beginning Sept. 17, according to a Wednesday announcement.
The U.S. and China are set to begin trade talks again after a tumultuous week of tension-escalating threats of new tariffs and tariff-rate increases that roiled international markets and alarmed the U.S. ag sector.
For many grain elevators in the Dakotas and surrounding states, the soybean superhighway sending the oilseed to export markets via the Pacific Northwest might as well be a cul-de-sac.
The soybean market in the coming weeks will be focused on China and how it handles its massive demand for the oilseed while at the same time avoiding U.S. supplies facing a 25 percent tariff in the ongoing trade war with the Trump administration.
In Creighton University's Rural Main Street Index for October, bankers report a growing economy overall in the nation's heartland but a lagging, tariff-encumbered farm sector.
Trade policy uncertainty following U.S. imposition of import tariffs and retaliation by China and other trading partners has forced International Monetary Fund economists to adopt a more pessimistic outlook for growth in the global economy.
The Trump administration today announced it is levying new tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, escalating a trade war between the two countries that has hit the U.S. agriculture sector especially hard thanks to Chinese retaliation.
The Department of Agriculture may have addressed many of the lingering questions about its trade assistance package with a Monday announcement detailing many of the relevant figures, but inquiring producers are still wondering how many aspects of the plan will be sorted out.
