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In It to Win It

(11,585 posts)
Sun Sep 28, 2025, 10:27 PM 6 hrs ago

China weaponizes ag imports to target Trump and US farmers

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/28/soybeans-sacrificed-in-trumps-china-gamble-00583232

As the clock ticks down on President Donald Trump’s 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 China’s reliance on the U.S. market would force Beijing to accept trade terms that benefited American businesses and consumers. Six months after the president’s “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 — doesn’t 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 China’s response to the tariff war during Trump’s 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? It’s 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 didn’t 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 Trump’s first term.

Who should pay for Trump’s 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
6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
China weaponizes ag imports to target Trump and US farmers (Original Post) In It to Win It 6 hrs ago OP
The same Argentina that Trump is bailing out? newdeal2 6 hrs ago #1
What did these dumbshits (both Trump, his people, and the farmers who voted MAGA) RockRaven 6 hrs ago #2
America last iemanja 5 hrs ago #3
This isn't one conversation with Xi away from being resolved BeyondGeography 5 hrs ago #4
*China* weaponizes???? BlueSpot 5 hrs ago #5
Narcissists seldom think that the victims of their attacks will retaliate... Wounded Bear 4 hrs ago #6

RockRaven

(18,076 posts)
2. What did these dumbshits (both Trump, his people, and the farmers who voted MAGA)
Sun Sep 28, 2025, 10:43 PM
6 hrs ago

think China was doing during the four years that The Dotard was out of office (and campaigning to get back in)? Sitting around doing nothing and wallowing in helplessness?

OF COURSE they have made themselves resilient to a weapon The Dotard already tried to wield and babbled about doing so again.

BeyondGeography

(40,674 posts)
4. This isn't one conversation with Xi away from being resolved
Sun Sep 28, 2025, 11:20 PM
5 hrs ago

The Chinese aren’t going to toss this winning hand away anytime soon.

From the article:

The longer that Chinese buyers turn their backs on U.S. suppliers, the lower the likelihood that they’ll see a return to large volume soybean sales to feed China’s market.

“The supply lines are going to get solidified, and once they solidify, China will be like ‘Why would I deal with an American supplier when I can still get the same material from Brazil or Argentina, and maybe it’s slightly more expensive, but I know those guys aren’t going to cut me off or screw with my shipments, unlike the U.S. government,’” Johnson said.

Beijing also has geostrategic reasons to leave behind U.S. soybean producers in favor of Latin American suppliers. China’s sharp increase in purchases of Brazilian soybeans coincides with sky-high political tensions between Washington and Brasilia…

BlueSpot

(1,200 posts)
5. *China* weaponizes????
Sun Sep 28, 2025, 11:28 PM
5 hrs ago

No. China responds to weaponization of tariffs. Same as they did last time around.

It's the same as a boycott. Supplier being an ass? Screw them and go to a competitor instead. Disney learned this lesson recently. Trump still can't figure it out.

Apparently, neither can Politico, which is a disappointment.

Wounded Bear

(63,050 posts)
6. Narcissists seldom think that the victims of their attacks will retaliate...
Sun Sep 28, 2025, 11:58 PM
4 hrs ago

And as "president" trump doesn't understand the concept of freedom and sovereignty and that other countries can push back.

Meanwhile, the American people suffer the consequences of his bullshit.

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