Trade rows dispirit head of largest bean processor in North America

Chippewa Valley founder says similar tensions in 1930 had led to Great Depression

MADISON, the United States - In her whole life, Cindy Brown, 62, a leading kidney bean processor in the midwestern state of Wisconsin, has never felt such a strong sense of "uncertainty".

Her family-run business has been thrown into disarray since the European Union, her major export market, added extra tariffs on imports of US goods in June, to retaliate against the US trade tariffs. The kidney bean is on the EU's target list.