Sorghum, Soybean, and Cotton Paying Trade Tariff Bills

(GREENWOOD VILLAGE, CO) Over the past two years, the U.S. has clashed with some of its most important trading partners. The tit-for-tat retaliatory tariffs have impacted the economies on both sides. Mexico, Canada, the EU, China, Korea, and Japan have all been targets for trade negotiation and renegotiation by the Trump administration and the flow of U.S. agricultural goods have felt the impact. To understand who pays these tariffs, CoBank took a closer look at key agricultural exports and analyzed 11 commodities representing a cross-section of exports. CoBank economists say, farmers and ranchers – not the importing country or its consumers – paid most of the cost of the tariffs in all but two cases. The winning commodities represent cheese to Mexico and almonds to China. CoBank says trade today in all other sectors favors the importer with sorghum to China taking the biggest hit (losing 100 percent of value year over year) while soybeans to China was second most affected (losing 98 percent of its value). Cotton to China represents the third most impacted commodity, losing 48 percent of its value in one year. CoBank says the longer tariffs are in place, the more time competitors have to take market share and cement trade relationships.