China could put another $60-billion worth of levies on U.S. goods
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
U.S. agriculture could be dealt another blow if China follows through on a threat of added tariffs.
On Friday, China released lists totaling about US$60-billion worth of U.S. goods it will tax if the Trump administration places US$200 billion in tariffs on Chinese products.
Farms.com translated the lists from Chinese to English using Google Translate.
Agricultural products are among the items China could target.
Coffee, honey, leather and some beef products could be subject to 25 percent tariffs, one of the lists says.
Ag groups are concerned about the escalating trade war with China.
The Chinese market is “essential for our survival as competitors continue to finalize formal trade agreements that could place us at a competitive disadvantage,” Stephen Sothman, president of the U.S. Hide, Skin and Leather Association, said in a statement Friday.
Frozen strawberries, fructose, canned peanuts and vodka could face 20 percent import charges, another list says.
China is the largest importer of American ag products. The longer the trade war continues, the more likely China will look elsewhere for its ag imports.
“That is what people fear,” Karen Ross, California’s ag secretary, told Fox News yesterday. “If this goes on for a prolonged period of time, we will lose significant markets that have been built (by) one relationship at a time over decades.”
China is also ready to tax imports of U.S. ag machinery.
Combines, combine parts, seeders and harrows could all face 20 percent tariffs.
China imported US$143-million worth of ag equipment in 2014, the U.S. Department of Commerce says.
Farms.com has reached out to the Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association for comment on China’s proposed tariffs.