Farmer who voted for US President Donald Trump pleads with him to end trade war

USA - Caleb Ragland, a Kentucky farmer who is president of the American Soybean Association, asked US President Donald Trump to end the trade war, according to Newsweek in an article published Wednesday in The Free Press.

"I'm one of 500,000 American soybean farmers who are feeling the pain. I depend on my own farm to provide 100 % of income for my family and the families of our three full-time employees," the paper quoted him as saying. Ragland called the trade war a "gamble on the livelihood of Americans, especially farmers" and urged Trump to "please make a deal with China now" to end it.

"The longer the stalemate continues, the more likely China is to take its trade elsewhere, such as Brazil," he warned. On Wednesday, "Trump increased U.S. tariffs against China when he initiated the suspension of "reciprocal" tariffs he has imposed on other countries. The delay offers little relief for farmers who fear that a protracted trade war with China will sever ties with their biggest export market," the New York Times reported on Thursday.

"The loss of China as an export market will deal a particularly hard economic blow to farm workers in many red states, hitting many voters who helped Mr Trump win the presidential election," the agency warned, adding that soybean producers warn that "farms could go bankrupt as the Trump administration imposes 145 % in new tariffs on China".

"If this goes on for a long time, we're going to have a significant number of farmers going out of business," the New York Times quoted Ragland as saying, adding that "we're still bearing the scars of the last trade war." "The longer this uncertainty continues, the more we fear that our growers could harvest billions of bushels of corn for which they will not have reliable markets," Kenneth Hartman Jr, president of the National Corn Growers Association, was quoted as saying. "Our farmers want to make sure that customers at home and abroad will be buying our products in the months and years ahead."

"Chinese soybean crushers scooped up an unusually large amount of Brazilian beans this week as an escalating trade war makes purchases of U.S. crops unviable. Importers bought at least 40 cargoes from Brazil in the first half of this week," Bloomberg reported Thursday.

"The shipments are mostly for delivery in May, June and July and are equivalent to at least 2.4 million tonnes, almost a third of the average volume China typically crushes in a month," Bloomberg reported.

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