The U.S. recently passed Brazil to become the top seller of soybeans to the European Union, but that "doesn’t come close to replacing the business with China that U.S. soybean growers have lost due to retaliatory tariffs," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico. "The U.S. exported about $587 million worth of soybeans to Europe over the 12-week period, which is roughly $2.5 billion on an annualized basis. China, the world’s largest importer of soybeans, bought up $12.3 billion worth of U.S. soybeans in 2017 — that’s 60 percent of all U.S. soy exports."
And U.S. farmers are dealing with a double whammy: not only is the E.U. not buying as much soy as China did, but slumping U.S. soy prices mean those sales aren't going as far, McCrimmon notes. Still, the uptick in E.U. sales does blunt the impact of Chinese tariffs for American farmers. Chad Hart, an associate economics professor at Iowa State University, told McCrimmon, "Europe is a sizable market, so growth (hopefully sustained) helps ... but compared to China, this is only a partial offset."
And U.S. farmers are dealing with a double whammy: not only is the E.U. not buying as much soy as China did, but slumping U.S. soy prices mean those sales aren't going as far, McCrimmon notes. Still, the uptick in E.U. sales does blunt the impact of Chinese tariffs for American farmers. Chad Hart, an associate economics professor at Iowa State University, told McCrimmon, "Europe is a sizable market, so growth (hopefully sustained) helps ... but compared to China, this is only a partial offset."
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