You might well wonder why China didn’t retaliate against US soybean exports in the wake of Trump’s 10% tax on Chinese goods. Was it because heavy tariffs were already in place in response to the earlier Section 301 tariffs? No, given the Phase 1 of the trade deal (not that there was ever a Phase 2), tariffs were reduce. Here’s the current situation, from the National Corn Growers Association.
Since Mr. Trump has observed this set of tariffs is just the beginning of the trade war, then China may have decided to keep its powder dry.
Just a reminder of what happened last time US soybeans got hit by Chinese tariffs (July 15, 2018 post):
Figure 1: Soybean futures for July 2019. Source: ino.com.
