China’s Ministry of Commerce has announced Chinese companies have stopped purchasing US agricultural products in response to a US plan to raise tariffs on Chinese goods from 1 September.
In a statement, the ministry said the US plan was a serious violation of the talks between the two countries and it has not ruled out imposing additional tariffs on US agricultural products.
This announcement comes four days after US President Donald Trump tweeted the US would place an additional 10 per cent tariff on US$300bn worth of Chinese imports.
China’s announcement will come as a further blow to US exporters that have already been hit hard by the trade war.
“China’s announcement that it will not buy any agricultural products from the United States is a body blow to thousands of farmers and ranchers who are already struggling to get by,” said Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
“Farm Bureau economists tell us exports to China were down by US$1.3bn during the first half of the year. Now, we stand to lose all of what was a US$9.1bn market in 2018, which was down sharply from the US$19.5bn U.S. farmers exported to China in 2017.”
