US farmers are stressed

US farmers find themselves in the crosshairs of a trade war with China and others launched by President Donald Trump, who was elected with the support of many in rural America.

On Friday, Trump announced long-threatened trade tariffs on tens of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods, sparking an immediate retaliation from Beijing on an equivalent of US products including agricultural goods, notably soy. “For American farmers, this isn’t theoretical anymore, it’s downright scary,” the Farmers for Free Trade lobbying group said of the prospects for escalating tariffs.

“It’s no longer a negotiating tactic, it’s a tax on their livelihoods.” China is the largest buyer of soy beans, buying $12 billion in 2017, about 30 per cent of the US harvest.

“We were already in a depressed market. These trade uncertainties add a lot of stress to this situation,” said Jamie Beyer, a farmer in Wheaton, Minnesota who grows soybean, corn, sugar beets, wheat and alfalfa. “We feel these tariffs are very damaging to our agricultural economy.”

Farmers are the most at risk in this trade battle, as their incomes already were falling, declining by around 50 per cent since 2013, and this year expected to reach the lowest level since 2006.