Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Trump's looming trade war could wreck the one bright spot in U.S. balance of payments: ag exports

Photo: StevanBaird via Flickr
Politico has a very illuminating piece on how Trump's looming trade war could claim as collateral damage the one bright spot in America's balance of trade: the huge trade surplus that farmers have been running since the 1960s. Last year it was $16 billion, and this year it is expected to be $21.5 billion. Contrast that with the $86 billion balance of trade deficit in manufactured goods.

The Trump administration has come out of the gate seemingly gearing up for a trade war -- withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, threatening to pull out of NAFTA and rattling relations with Mexican President Peña Nieto with talk of paying for a wall along the southern border by imposing taxes on imports. The goal is to restore U.S. manufacturing jobs in languishing industries like steel, and help the Rust Belt factory workers who turned out to vote Trump. But farmers and ranchers have a lot to lose, and they’re are starting to worry their entire industry will be collateral damage in Trump’s trade experiment.

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