Farmers Brace for Significant Losses in a New Trade War The New York Times

“If these tariffs go into effect for a significant period, we’re likely looking at a disruption that is likely to be severe, and likely worse than the 2018 trade war,” said David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University. In addition to the 34 percent tariff on U.S. goods, China’s General Administration of Customs said it would suspend poultry meat and bone meal imports from the facilities of five American poultry companies and sorghum imports from a sixth, because of what it said was the detection of bacteria or banned chemicals. A spokeswoman for one of them, Darling Ingredients, which converts little-used animal products into animal feed and fertilizer, said it had not before received any complaints about its products sent to China. The last shipment of poultry products from the suspended facility cleared China on Tuesday, she said. The spokeswoman added that nearly all of the protein the company produced stayed within the United States, and that very little of it was exported to China. The USA Poultry & Egg Export Council is waiting for more information about the import suspensions, a spokesman said. But the group estimates that the tariffs will reduce chicken exports to China by 59 percent, a projected loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.