Over the last month, there has been a lot of jockeying between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding the ongoing trade war.
About a week ago, Trump proposed a meeting between himself and Xi to discuss the situation, more specifically, China's boycott of American soybeans.
Trump wound up calling off the meeting and threatening a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods, and after Xi responded, the president is taking steps to calm concerns by dismissing his comments in large part.
China had been a major buyer of American soybeans for many years, but the tariff war has hurt American farmers in a very real way.
Beijing has all but eliminated the practice of purchasing soybeans from the United States, a move that has driven prices down, left bins full at farms, and is now threatening soybean farmers' livelihoods.
Roughly half of all soybean exports in this country head to China, accounting for about $12.6 billion in business for American farmers.
All told, more than 25% of the overall business done by soybean farmers has suddenly disappeared.
Trump was calling for a meeting with the Chinese president, with the trade war being atop the list of subjects to discuss, but he called that meeting off last week.
Not only that, Trump noted that he was going to hit China with a massive tariff to boot.
He stated, "Based on the fact that China has taken this unprecedented position, and speaking only for the U.S.A., and not other Nations who were similarly threatened, starting November 1st, 2025 (or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China), the United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying.”
Trump then added, “Also on November 1st, we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software."
China responded that it did not want a trade war, but that it was not going to back off if that was the direction that Trump wanted to head. As I have noted before, Trump has to be careful here because, at least for now, China is the one holding the hammer, as our country is still overly reliant on the Asian power for many necessary products, including medicine and finished rare earth minerals products.
Trump tried to calm everyone down over the Chinese response, stating, “Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine! Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment.”
He later added, “He doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!”
This is something that Trump has to figure out sooner rather than later. Tariffs are starting to impact the price of goods in this country, and with housing and insurance costs on the rise, we are all getting squeezed pretty good. It’s definitely not panic time just yet, but if this goes on into next year, I think it will dramatically impact the next election cycle.
