US-China trade war: Trump pledges to support American farmers

Soy Transportation Coalition Executive Director Mike Steenhoek on how farmers have been affected by the U.S.-China trade war.

President Trump pledged Tuesday to stand by American farmers as trade tensions with China escalate and fears about the U.S. agriculture industry grow.

“As they have learned in the last two years, our great American Farmers know that China will not be able to hurt them in that their President has stood with them and done what no other president would do - And I’ll do it again next year if necessary!” Trump said in a Tuesday morning tweet.

The U.S. agriculture industry has been a centerpiece of the trade spat with China, as the world’s second-largest economy is one of the American farm industry’s top buyers. The country announced Monday that it will suspend the purchases of U.S. agricultural products, a direct response to Trump’s announcement last week that Washington would impose a 10 percent tariff on $300 billion of Chinese exports.

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“This is a serious violation of the meeting between the heads of state of China and the United States,” a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement, adding that it won’t “rule out import tariffs on newly purchased US agricultural products after August 3.”