- Video shows US Soybean harvest and markets reacting to latest round of tariffs
- The latest retaliatory tariffs imposed by China on US crops has the potential to upend markets in agriculture industry
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It didn’t come as much of a surprise when President Trump on Wednesday announced the latest round of tariff’s in his ongoing worldwide trade war.
But what was shocking to many was just how far reaching those tariff’s would be.
“I don’t know it’s scary. You look at the markets, clearly the markets do not like uncertainty and we have known that for a long time,” said McHargue.
When we caught up with Farm Bureau President Mark McHargue in March President Trump had just walked back proposed tariff’s on Mexico and Canada.
McHargue at the time saw it as a sign that the President may be re-thinking his approach to renegotiating deals with our trading partners.
“Im not sure what is going on other than it would be great if he had a couple of trade scenarios in his pocket he could roll out to nullify some of this but we certainly don’t know that,” said McHargue.
The uncertainty for farmers and ranchers is already showing in the markets, especially for soybeans.
On Friday China retaliated against US tariffs by imposing its own 34% tariff’s on all US imports, including the around $12 billion in soybeans we export to china.
Soybean futures were down over 3% by Friday afternoon and McHargue said the business we are losing in the trade war won’t come back anytime soon.
“I would fully anticipate they will be buying more from countries like Brazil and less from us. That is gonna make us less competitive in the world,” said McHargue.
Most signs are pointing to a potentially rough year financially for farmers and ranchers.
Along with Soybeans almost all livestock commodities from cattle to hogs saw markets dip on Friday but the Trump administration is already laying the groundwork to bail out farmers.
“The answer is yes, we are setting up the infrastructure that if in fact we have some economic consequences in the short term to our farmers and perhaps our ranchers that we will have programs in place to solve for that,” said US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.
If push comes to shove, McHargue expects the Trump administration to keep those promises.
“IF thats the case, if they are really going to dig into this long term I would expect some payments. I wish it wasn’t that way but we will hold them to their commitments if thats the case,” said McHargue.
