How Much Could Pork Lose If There’s A Trade War?

The agricultural industry has its eye on Washington as pork producers are caught in the middle of a trade spat.

The Trump administration is taking action with China on what President Trump says is “the largest deficient of any country in the history of the world” with an announcement of tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products. The administration is deciding to tack on an additional $60 billion on Chinese goods after investigating what it says is China’s unfair trading practices with intellectual property.

The Chinese have announced retaliatory tariffs on up to $3 billion dollars of U.S. goods in response. The country planning is two waves. The first is set to attack products like wine, nuts and fruit. Tariffs on U.S. pork is expected to be part of a second wave.

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is against the move. They report that in 2017, the U.S. pork industry exported $1.1 billion of product to China, making China the number two value market for U.S. pork.

Chris Hurt, an economist with Purdue University says The United States exported roughly 22 percent of pork exports in 2017. China purchased just over 9 percent of that amount. To break that down, China imported roughly 2 percent of all U.S. pork production in 2017.

How much could the pork industry lose during a potential trade war? AgDay and U.S. Farm Report national reporter Betsy Jibben talks with Chris Hurt, Purdue University agricultural economist; Jim Wiesemeyer, Farm Journal policy analyst; Steve Meyer, Kerns and Associates economist and Brian Mckenzie, Cass County, Michigan pork producer.