President Donald Trump may be a resort-dwelling real estate magnate
who entered politics via golden escalator, but even a trade war with
China hasn’t tarnished his image as a champion for an unlikely group:
farmers and ranchers. Farmers are
one of the most visible casualties of the U.S.-China trade war,
which escalated sharply this week as both sides landed blows that could
hold potentially devastating consequences for U.S. agriculture. Yet farmers appear to be sticking by Trump — not just the Republican they
largely supported
in the 2016 election, but the trade warrior who has put their
industries in China’s sights. And while they’re far from the largest
group in Trump’s corner, farmers could prove to be a crucial voting bloc
in the 2020 election. The Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture’s
latest producer survey,
which was conducted last month and released Tuesday, showed a
record-high 78% of farmers said they believe the trade war will
ultimately benefit U.S. agriculture. That roughly matches Trump’s
overall approval rating of 79% among farmers, according to a
Farm Pulse survey conducted around the same time. That data was collected before this past week, however, when Trump
said he would impose on Sept. 1 new 10% tariffs on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese goods. Trump tweeted the announcement just after the two countries had
restarted trade talks in Shanghai. He claimed China had broken its
promises to buy “large quantities” of U.S. agricultural products and
stop selling fentanyl. China swung back on Monday, taking
the severe step of canceling all purchases of U.S. agriculture products. That’s no small loss: The U.S. made
$9.2 billion
in agricultural exports to China last year according to the Department
of Agriculture, making that country the fifth-largest U.S. agricultural
export market...
MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment