The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released a study that found retaliatory tariffs led to a substantial reduction in U.S. agricultural exports to said retaliating partners.
The report provided "a detailed look at the impact of retaliatory tariffs by State and commodity and estimates the direct export losses associated with the trade conflict."
The aforementioned trade conflict began with the U.S. putting tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from major trading partners, as well as many other tariffs on imports from China, in 2018. To counter the tariffs, Canada, China, the European Union (EU), India, Mexico and Turkey imposed tariffs on many U.S. agricultural exports, with the farm supplies targeted for retribution worth $30.4 billion in 2017, according to the report.
“Given that agricultural production for certain commodities is concentrated in certain States, retaliatory tariffs affected states differently,” the USDA reported. “As of October 2021, many retaliatory tariffs were still in effect with the following exceptions—Canada and Mexico’s tariffs were removed in May 2019.”
The USDA reported that China announced tariff exemptions for some products after the U.S.-China Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement on January 15, 2020, and in October 2021 the United States and EU reached deals to deal with global steel and aluminum excess capacity.
