The U.S. was once the number one supplier of soybeans to China, which purchased more than half of all American soybean exports last year.
But farmers have been hit hard by Trump’s trade war, which has caused China to purchase 51% fewer soybeans in the first half of the year, as 20% tariffs have been implemented on American imports.
Currently, with some states already harvesting, there are zero orders from China.
Argentina First??
Cue the Trump administration, who has decided to offer a $20 billion rescue for Argentina and its floundering economy with U.S. taxpayers money. Treasury Secretary Scott (AreYouReadyToRumble) Bessent says a deal is necessary to support Elon Musk’s chainsaw benefactor and Trump ally, Javier Milei ahead of Argentina’s October elections.
At the same time Bessent was publicizing the deal, Argentina dropped taxes on their soybean exports, and sold 20 shiploads to China.
Make Argentina Great Again!
Iowa farmer and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley was pissed.
Relax, Chuck. Trump’s got the farmers’ backs, with all of his bigly tariff dollars.
“So we’re going to make sure that our farmers are in great shape because we’re taking in a lot of money,” he added.
But wait, there’s more.
U.S. Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins says they are cooking up an additional bailout for farmers.
“We are currently in conversations here at the White House, across the government, on a farmer aid package. In our current programming right now, we’ve got about $13 billion moving out under ECAP, which is our old farmer payment system, based on losses from last year and the year before,” she added.