‘From bad to worse’: tariff-hit US farmers urge Donald Trump to settle trade war

Calls from agricultural groups to break stalemate through deals with China and Mexico or prioritising markets elsewhere

Pig farmers push for speedier settlement while soybean farmers have ‘no hope of making any money’

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US pork producers say they are losing US$8 per animal because of the dispute with China. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 2:52pm, 14 May 2019Updated: 1:58pm, 15 May 2019

American farmers have “lost all hope” for a satisfactory resolution to the US-China trade war, and are pushing their government to turn to new markets after the sudden escalation in tensions last week.

US agricultural exporters such as soybean and pork producers have suffered major losses over the past year since Chinese tariffs were placed on thetir goods, and fear the protracted dispute will keep them out of the Chinese market for a long time to come.

“If you asked me two weeks ago, I would have told you I was optimistic about a deal, but now I’ve just done a 180 and I’m not optimistic at all,” Lindsay Greiner, president of the Iowa Soybean Association, said.

US President Donald Trump suggested last month that Washington and Beijing were close to a deal, but said last week that China had backtracked on previously agreed positions.

In response to Friday’s tariff hike by the US, from 10 to 25 per cent on US$200 billion of imported Chinese goods, China struck back on Monday with tariffs on about 5,000 types of American products worth US$60 billion. Among these goods were agricultural products including beef and manufactured products such as furniture.