Feel the chill: U.S. and China can’t get past trade tensions
Are the U.S. and China headed for a “cold war”?
That seems to be the tone of recent media coverage, as various pundits have pointed out that China is ill-positioned to satisfy its promises to buy $200 billion more in U.S. goods over the next two years than it bought in 2017.
The cynic may say it is in the political interests of President Trump to keep China cast as a bad actor as his presidential campaign picks up speed.
That wouldn’t be a great development for U.S. fruit growers, who would like to see recent trends of increased shipments to China continue. (see chart below)
On another note, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service has a new feature called “Selected Weekly Fruit Movement and Price."
The report describes the change in shipment volume, farm prices, and retail prices of select fruit for the week noted.
Comments are due June 22 for the docket on rules to implement the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. So far, about 90 comments, most seeking some change to the program. The USDA rule establishes provisions for direct payments to producers of eligible commodities.
One example of the sometimes unlikely comments:
- Please add bananas to the list of specialty crops covered. Here in Hawaii many farmers specialize in bananas and we grow many different banana varieties. As markets shut down, these farmers (including us) suffered a lot of loses and would really appreciate if the government heard our voices.
Notable links
India COVID-19 retail update
Check out a few charts show U.S.-China trade through in various ways.
