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From AP: Farmers Fear Trump's Tariffs Will Cost Them One Of Their Biggest Markets In China. [1]

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Date: 2025-04-05

No, this isn’t necessarily a FAFO story. However, the AP writes about how American farmers will end up losing another big market in China because of Trump’s tariffs. Actually, the AP says farmers may lose the market for many of their agricultural products in China, but I’m betting it’s a given that this will happen. China retaliated against Trump’s tariffs with their own againts all American products (34% tariff on American goods).

And what are those agricultural products we sell to China? Well, half of the soybean and sorghum crops normally go to China. Yes, half. Before Trump’s 2018 Trade War with China, 62% of American soybeans were exported to China. During the first Trump trade war, American soybean exports to China plunged to 18%. Brazil came along to fill in the gap for soybeans to China.

And soybeans is not all we sell to China.

China has also bought a lot of American corn, beef, chicken and other crops as part of spending $24.65 billion on U.S. agricultural products last year.

Higher prices for American products means less sales to China, and the price of those commodities is going to drop. And according to the AP, the price for soybeans has already been falling.

Tim Dufault, whose farm is in northwest Minnesota only about 80 miles south of Canada, said in a good year soybean farmers might make $50 to $75 an acre. But this isn’t a good year because crop prices aren’t high enough to cover soaring costs, and the price drop in the past two days cost them about $25 an acre, he said.

Given how the price of inputs has been rising for farmers already, how do you think farmers feel or say about Trump’s tariffs? Most farmers interviewed for stories fall into two general categories. First is the “Yeehaw Brigade” who feel that Trump is some kind of business genius fighting for farmers in order to obtain a fair trade deal. The second group are more realistic about the dangers of a trade war but are too afraid to admit that Trump is fucking them over with his stupid tariffs. Some in this latter group are still clinging to the delusion that Trump isn’t REALLY SERIOUS in keeping the tariffs for a long time.

But farmer Bryant Kagay, part owner of Kagay farms in Amity, Missouri, said he doesn’t “have a lot of faith that these tariffs — the way they are laid out today — will stick around long term.”

Oh you foolish, foolish man.

There is one farmer who realizes the strain that farmers are under, but he falls back on “Yeehaw.” This would be Mr. Ragland, who is president of the American Soybean Growers. And for a bonus, he’s a farmer from Kentucky.

The hope for farmers is that Trump’s tariffs will lead to negotiations with other countries that will lower tariffs and other trade barriers. “That’s the type of positive development that we can do that’s good for everybody involved, and that’s what we need to look for,” Ragland said. “Instead of beating each other up with higher and higher tariffs — it’s just like punching each other in the face. We’re not going to gain anything from it. It’s just going to cause us to hurt. That would be my encouragement to the administration, is to look for opportunities and get some great deals done proactively.”

Emphasis is mine. Mr. Ragland has forgotten to notice that Trump has routinely fucked over contractors who worked for him, and Trump has gone bankrupt six times. He’s still a believer in Trump the business genius.

Will farmers ever realize that they are on the menu? If they do, most will NEVER admit that they were wrong about Trump and the GOP. Better to lose your farm in silence than face the mockery of those you hate as they say FAFO.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/5/2314812/-From-AP-Farmers-Fear-Trump-s-Tariffs-Will-Cost-Them-One-Of-Their-Biggest-Markets-In-China?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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