WASHINGTON, DC – As the President-elect Joe Biden begins the process of setting up a cabinet, there are questions in agriculture relating to ongoing trade and tensions with China and how this could affect farmers and ranchers in the United States. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), some industry insiders are worried the rising tensions between the two countries will hurt outstanding sales, which have been made but not shipped, meaning they could be canceled, which is something that China already does for a wide variety of issues. Each week, the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) releases their Weekly Export Sales report outlining the volume of exports and sales for the previous week. The report, however, does not provide the value of these exports or sales intentions. Using “implied export values”, AFBF suggests that the U.S. has over $4.1 billion in outstanding sales of soybeans to China that could be under threat of a response from the Chinese government. This is in addition to $1.4 billion in outstanding sales of corn, $595 million in cotton, $585 million in sorghum, $197 million in wheat, $180 million in beef, and $220 million in pork. Other trade analysts believe the Biden administration will continue down the same path that President Trump paved, with the exception of the frequent use of tariffs to force compliance.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)