US govt to give farmers $16b in aid

Farmers in the United States, a key voting block in Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election and among the hardest hit by the ongoing US-China trade dispute, will receive $16 billion in aid, the US Agriculture Department announced on Thursday.

Later on that day, Trump predicted a swift end to the ongoing trade war with China, Reuters reported.

Although no high-level talks have been scheduled between the two countries since the last round of negotiations ended in Washington two weeks ago, Trump said: "It's happening, it's happening fast and I think things probably are going to happen with China fast because I cannot imagine that they can be thrilled with thousands of companies leaving their shores for other places."

The $16 billion aid package "is in line with the estimated impacts of unjustified retaliatory tariffs on US agricultural goods and other trade disruptions", the department said in a statement, and follows $12 billion authorized last year.

"Farmers themselves will tell you they'd rather have trade than aid," Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters. "The package we're announcing today will ensure that farmers will not bear the brunt of those trade actions."

Perdue said the first of three payments is likely to be made in July or August, and noted a new trade agreement with China could be reached before the first payment.

This year's payments will be based on the Agriculture Department's estimate of economic damage sustained by each county in farm states.

The payments underscore the political clout farmers have in Washington and the importance of the Midwest to Trump's 2020 reelection campaign. China's tariffs on soybeans and beef and the recent cancellation of a pork deal have hit Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio hard. Trump carried those states in 2016 and they are key to his reelection.

"Chinese tariffs on US agricultural goods continue to have the biggest impact on the farm economy," Purdue University's Center for Commercial Agriculture said in a report.

"Trade concerns with China involve the fundamental way each country does business so will not be easy to resolve. Yet, both countries have strong incentives to make progress toward a framework for working on these differences. Failure to resolve trade issues will be painful for US agriculture.

"On the other hand, a negotiated settlement could involve China buying even larger quantities of US agricultural products and be friendly to farm incomes in coming years," the report said.

In 2017, China purchased about 60 percent of US soybean exports. Brazilian-grown soybeans are likely to increase at the expense of US-grown soybeans, boosted by a weak Brazilian currency and the continuing US-China trade dispute, S&P Global reported.

On Friday, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China and the US have conducted good cooperation in a wide range of areas, including agriculture, which has brought concrete benefits to both businesses and consumers.

People in China's agricultural and husbandry industries sympathize greatly with their US peers for the issues they are going through, Lu said.

"We have noticed that associations of the agricultural and husbandry industries in the US asked clearly the US government to correct its wrongdoings," Lu said.

It shows that these associations are clear that China is not to blame for the fact that the two countries cannot solve differences through friendly talks like they used to, and that the Chinese government, like the government of any other country, has to take measures to protect China's legitimate rights when they get hurt, Lu added.

Wang Qingyun in Beijing contributed to this story.

scottreeves@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 05/25/2019 page8)