Trade War Still Going

Trade War Still Going

Rick Worthington
Rick Worthington
Trade War Still Going

With the farm and ranch report I'm Rick Worthington. Yes the trade war with China is still an issue. Farmers and ranchers in the U.S. are dealing with its big frustration for farmers in particular who are now looking at numbers that tell the story of just how bad a year they've had. Rob Johanson is with the USDA and says farmers who grew some smaller feed grains have really suffered sorghum down almost 10 percent year over year lowest on records.

Oats down 7 percent year over year lowest on record and third lowest on record for barley so some of those smaller feed grains are also facing a difficult situation of course the big uncertainty for sorghum is whether or not that will be able to sell to China or not. And so producers are still looking to that. Of course I would point also at the pulse crops are also facing that uncertainty and we're seeing those acreages come down for the most part again due to uncertainty about markets in countries like India that have been putting some import tariffs on imports from the United States as well as other countries.

Here's what history tells us about trade wars in the long run a trade war cost jobs it depresses economic growth for all countries involved it also triggers inflation when tariffs increase the prices of imports. Meanwhile a year into the tariff war between the U.S. and China officials are finally signaling that a hard negotiated deal to end the standoff is near.

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