In US-China trade war, voters in rural America are suffering the most

Midwest and plains farm states hit hardest by Chinese tariffs, as China seeks to target Trump supporters

Illinois suffered most, with its exports to China falling 33 per cent last year, while exports from Minnesota were also badly hit

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Farmer Mark Catterton drives a John Deere Harvester while harvesting soybeans during his fall harvest on October 19, 2018 in Owings, Maryland. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Published: 8:30pm, 2 May 2019Updated: 8:30pm, 2 May 2019

Across rural America, voters turned out in their droves for US President Donald Trump in 2016, but a new study has found that agricultural states are taking the heaviest blows from the US-China trade war.

Research from the US-China Business Council (USCBC), a member organisation for American companies doing business in China, found that Midwestern states and those situated along the Great Plains, the vast expanses of flat lands and prairies that covers swathes of the United States, have suffered most due to their reliance on agricultural goods, such as soybeans, which were heavily targeted by China’s retaliatory tariffs.

Of all US states, Illinois suffered the most last year. Its total exports to China fell 32.8 per cent to US$3.8 billion in 2018, from a year earlier. Exports to China from Minnesota were also badly hit, plummeting 18.5 per cent to US$2.5 billion in 2018.

The trade war’s impact on farm states is partly by design, with Beijing aiming tariffs on states with high concentrations of support for Trump. Many Midwestern and farm states, home to the hollowed out economies of Appalachia and the rust belt, voted for Trump in the 2016 election.

US soybean farming states have been among those most heavily hit by trade war tariffs. Photo: AP

The world’s two largest economies have been engaged in a tit-for-tat trade war since last July, slapping tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of products.

An estimated 85 per cent of US goods exports to China, including most agricultural products, were hit by trade tariffs, imposed by Beijing in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on Chinese exports.