The U.S. Trade Surplus With China: Farm Products
From today's Financial Times (free subscription may be required):
"As U.S. politicians lose sleep over the trade deficit with China and the dollar-renminbi exchange rate, American farmers are eyeing a record $14 billion in exports there this year. The U.S. had a $4 billion trade surplus in agricultural products with China in the first four months of 2010, helping shave the total deficit to $71 billion in the period.
The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter of soybeans and cotton, commodities for which China is the world’s top importer. Exports “exploded” after China’s 2001 accession to the World Trade Organisation, says the US Department of Agriculture. Growing livestock and textile industries have stoked demand for animal feed and fibres.
“It’s huge,” says Randy Mann, who cultivates corn, soybeans and wheat on 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares) in Kentucky and chairs a trade and international affairs committee of the American Soybean Association. “Probably a third of the price on the Chicago Board of Trade is related to the soybean market in China. That’s the impact it can have.” Soybean prices have doubled in a decade to $10 a bushel."
4 Comments:
Let me be clear.
We need some kind of windfall export tax on these greedy farmers.
put this and the posting after it together and you get a disturbing conclusion:
american taxpayers are subsidizing agricultural exports to china.
unlike bob, i don't think the answer is to limit exports, but rather to abandon the subsidies. it's bad enough to subsidize our own consumption, but to subsidize that of the rest of the world is just too stupid for words.
/sarcasm
You are spot on, morganovich
american taxpayers are subsidizing agricultural exports to china...
That seems to be what voters want.
Post a Comment
<< Home