'Trade dispute with China hurts,' US farmers long for settlement
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E-mail Xinhua, August 20, 2019
"If we can work together to come up (with) some agreement that benefit both sides of that agreement, it's very important to agriculture," said Paap, adding that U.S. farmers want trade rather than aid.
The American Soybean Association (ASA), which represents more than 300,000 soybean farmers, issued a statement in May, opposing using unilateral tariffs to address U.S. trade imbalance with China and other countries.
Instead, the organization suggested the issue be resolved through talks and other measures.
The frictions, if continue, will become increasingly difficult to be settled, said Davie Stephens, ASA president and soybean grower from the U.S. state of Kentucky.
"With depressed prices and unsold stocks expected to double by the 2019 harvest, soybean farmers are not willing to be collateral damage in an endless tariff war," he said.
Bleak business outlook
The U.S. administration's trade rifts with China have grilled farmers in various agricultural sectors.
U.S. pork farmers are increasingly worried that their longtime efforts to secure a foothold in China are vaporizing. The protracted trade tensions may dampen the outlook for their access to China, the world's biggest pork market, and consequently cripple the entire industry.
"Without a doubt, we would love to have access to the Chinese market ... There's a tremendous demand in China, and we can certainly fill some of that demand," David Preisler, chief executive officer of the Minnesota Pork Producers Association, told Xinhua.
More than 25 percent of the country's total pork production is exported, with China being a major buyer, according to data from the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
China has been historically an important complementary market for U.S. pork, mainly due to different dietary cultures, Preisler said.
According to U.S. authorities, American hog farmers are estimated to be losing out on 1 billion U.S. dollars annually amid the trade tensions with China.
David Herring, president of the National Pork Producers Council, told a U.S. House Agriculture subcommittee in a hearing last month that retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and other countries are "one of the most damaging threats" to his industry.
Preisler told Xinhua that his team is currently projecting "a slight profit" for the coming year, down from a previous estimate of "about 20 to 25 dollars per head" three weeks ago.
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