China weaponizes ag imports to target Trump and US farmers [View all]
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/28/soybeans-sacrificed-in-trumps-china-gamble-00583232
As the clock ticks down on President Donald Trumps deadline to seal a trade deal with China, a top U.S. farming industry is becoming collateral damage again.
Trump launched his tariff war earlier this year expressing confidence that Chinas reliance on the U.S. market would force Beijing to accept trade terms that benefited American businesses and consumers. Six months after the presidents Liberation Day tariffs and weeks from the Nov. 10 White House cutoff for a trade pact between the two countries, U.S. soybean farmers are learning that China long the predominant market for their product doesnt need them anymore.
China has not purchased any U.S. soybeans since May, according to the American Soybean Association. Beijing has pivoted to suppliers in Brazil and Argentina logging huge orders for Latin American beans and leaving U.S. farmers in the cold and panicking.
The dramatic shift echoes Chinas response to the tariff war during Trumps first term when the value of U.S. soybean exports plunged to $3.1 billion in 2018 from $14 billion in 2016.
How can we be surprised? Its a repeat of Trump 1.0, said Marc Busch, who has advised both the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department from 2012 to 2018 on trade and is a professor of international business diplomacy at Georgetown University. They didnt need Liberation Day or fentanyl tariffs to get them to rush to this playbook it had been well worn in the first Trump administration and to great effect.
Again. Same as Trumpâs first term.
Who should pay for Trumpâs repeated self indulgent tariff folly? The people about to have their healthcare increase exponentially? The 300,000 Black women who were put out of work by DOGE and Trump economic policies? Teachers? Librarians?
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) 2025-09-29T01:41:43.983Z