Tariffs Hitting Agriculture - One Of America's Positive Trade Sectors

The U.S. is imposing a 25 percent tariff on up to $50 billion in Chinese goods. The Trump administration claims theft of intellectual property and unfair trading practices is the reasoning behind the tariffs. China is responding to the U.S. by hitting Trump’s base in the agriculture and automobile industries.“Trade is complex. A good trade deal for one sector can pose risk for the other,” said Brandon Willis, a professor of applied economics at Utah State University and senior advisor to the former secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack.“If you take a step back," he said, "the U.S. runs a trade deficit annually around $500 billion. Agriculture is a bright spot with a $23 billion surplus predicted in 2017. When we talk about automobiles and when we talk about intellectual property, we talk a lot about different sectors that are not winning the trade game.”