Voice of America: Trump Administration Seeks to Temper China Trade War Fears

American Farm Bureau Federation’s Will Rodger was quoted by Voice of America in an article on the current trade situation with China and its impact on American agriculture. Noting that America’s farmers and ranchers will be greatly impacted by a possible trade war, Voice of Agriculture explained: "China, which buys nearly $20 billion in U.S. agricultural products annually, has become one of the most important export markets for U.S. farmers, but many agricultural products, including soybeans, cotton, frozen beef and sorghum, will be subject to tariffs if it goes into effect.”

Rodger, AFBF policy communications director, explained how dependent agriculture is on trade and that the current farm economy is at a 16-year low. “Right now, we export about 20 percent of what we produce. We are very, very dependent on exports. We are looking at 25 percent being placed on soybeans into China. The actual economic impact will not be good, it will certainly be bad, the question is how large it’s going to be, we don’t know exactly,” Rodger told Voice of America. “While we haven’t reached the crisis point, we have one or two more years of declining income, we will be there pretty quickly. We need it to stop, we need China and the United States to sit down and come up with a reasonable agreement in a reasonable fashion,” he said.