As China and the U.S. swap threats of import taxes on billions of dollars of goods, financial markets fluctuated and farmers are frustrated, saying they worry over hard-built trade relationships with one of their largest customers.
Argentina and Brazil may fill China’s soybean needs if China imposes a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybean exports. And experts say : “China is the world’s largest consumer, and the U.S. is the largest producer, … so they’ll need to replace the U.S. with some other country,”
Earlier this month, the U.S. and China both announced billions of dollars in taxes on billions of dollars worth of imported goods - China is seeking tariffs on $50 billion worth of U.S. products that include soybeans and pork while the U.S. announced taxes on $150 billion worth of 1,300 Chinese prod
Congressional leaders said they would explore federal help for farmers should tariffs be put in place but Tamara Nelson, senior director of commodities for the Illinois Farm Bureau, said the moves would not help. “Farmers don’t want aid, farmers want to be able to trade,” she said.
As Dave Dickey writes, U.S. grain and oilseed farmers, specialty crop growers and pork producers are hoping that China and U.S. leadership pull back their reins on the potential for a full-blown trade war that could cripple U.S. gross domestic product.
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue told farmers that they need to open a line of communication with the public, as consumers push for more standards, transparency and traceability.
Over the past decade, foreign companies have been investing in agricultural land in the United States at a record pace, according to a Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting analysis of USDA data. The data was compiled from 1900 to 2014 under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (A
The Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch is offering copies of the photojournalism book “Juxtapositions” to those who donate $75 or more to IowaWatch.
Controversy about speech limits on college campuses in Iowa drew the most attention of all the IowaWatch stories written in 2016. Here is a look at our most-read stories of the year.
The complaint, the 15th filed against China by the Obama administration since 2009, argues that China is not “transparent, predictable or fair” in its administration of tariff-rate quotients, which protect its domestic farmers by taxing imports at a higher rate.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad will step down in 2017 to become the U.S. Ambassador to China after President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of him to the post is confirmed. This IowaWatch Connection podcast report looks at that career that made Branstad the longest-serving governor in American history.
