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The Department of Agriculture has paid out $7.7 billion so far to help farmers impacted by the ongoing tariff war with China, according to William Northey, Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation.
The funds represent a portion of the $12 billion relief package that President Donald Trump pledged in July to offset the losses from retaliatory tariffs imposed by Beijing in response to Washington's tariffs on Chinese goods.
Northey's comments come as Trump prepares to meet Friday with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He to continue the next stage of trade talks ahead of a March 1 deadline.
If the two countries fail to strike a deal, the current tariff rate of 10 percent will be raised to 25 percent, resulting in billions of dollars of additional tariffs. However, Trump hinted earlier this week that the March 1 deadline was flexible, saying it was not a "magical date" by which any compromise was assured.
If we lose the export markets, it will hurt us from an economic standpoint. It will hurt the ability to provide for our family,” Bob Hemesath, a fourth-generation pork producer and corn farmer in northern Iowa, told NBC News last year. “Agriculture is one of the biggest industries in Iowa. It supports a lot of jobs. If agriculture suffers, small-town main street suffers.”
Not that Trump or our government as a whole gives a damn about the farmers. After all farming is overrated.
Who cares about 7 billion. The leftists certainly don't care, our debt is up to 20 trillion, that's with a T not a B. The republicans don't care either. 7 billion means nothing.
Who cares about 7 billion. The leftists certainly don't care, our debt is up to 20 trillion, that's with a T not a B. The republicans don't care either. 7 billion means nothing.
You’re right neither party cares it just keeps climbing and neither one of them tries to stop it. And with Trumps wall and all the things he wants it’s just going to keep climbing. And it will do the same when Trumps gone
No matter whose in office.
Government subsidizing farmers and corporations in our country. But the less government crowd is ok with this and not let the market play out winners and losers. But hey we don’t want no part of socialism.
PBS had an interview with Yasheng Huang from the MIT School of Management on to talk about the tariffs. He made some interesting points. He said that China was at a disadvantage because of the trade war for two reasons. First was that the China's GDP share was higher than ours with China. We buy more from China than they buy from us. Second was that China's economy is slowing down. If we buy less Chinese imports and their plants start closing, then workers get laid off, their economy tanks. Part of the collateral damage for the tariffs are the farmers being hurt. China has others options to hurt us back as well. They own trillions of dollars in bonds that they purchased after our 2008 recession and housing market down turn. If they sell off the bonds we will have to raise interest rates to attract other investors, and we all know what happened to the stock market when the feds just hinted at an interest rate hike. The disadvantage to the Chinese would be that their current bonds held would be devalued. Will they do it anyway? That remains to be seen. The Chinese could pull back from sending students to study here. Rich Chinese send their children here to study and the Chinese are moving the housing markets up ward in California. They are the biggest foreign investors in American houses and are now moving into Texas, Georgia, and Florida. ( And you Trumpers though the brown man was the biggest threat.) I doubt the trade war would stop the wealthy Chinese from buying here, but pulling the students out could devalue Chinese currency according to Huang. Another thing the Chinese could do is boycott American owned businesses in China. Starbucks has a little over 3000 stores, KFC has hundreds, McDonalds? Well you get the idea, but is it a good idea to boycott and risk the unemployment of millions of workers when your economy is slowing down? Probably not. If you consider the revenue brought in by American owned businesses in China, it just about wipes out the deficit according to Huang.
So if our trade balance isn't really that far off, why institute a trade war? Why not negotiate without collateral damage on both sides? After all Trump claims to be the best negotiator ever.
I agree that China needs to do better by us and stop stealing our technology and robbing our businesses, but I don't agree that a trade war is the best way to handle the situation. Yes we can bail out the farmers, but for how long if China imports all of their goods from other countries permanently? Wait a minute. Doesn't collecting social security, unemployment, welfare, and now welfare for farmers make us socialist?
Putin has already made it clear that Russia can supply China with soybeans. Whether Russia is able to do that remains to be seen.
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