{"id":255071,"date":"2025-09-26T02:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T02:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/255071\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T02:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T02:29:09","slug":"u-s-soybean-farmers-demand-trade-deal-after-argentina-moves-the-frustration-is-overwhelming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/255071\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. soybean farmers demand trade deal after Argentina moves: ‘The frustration is overwhelming’"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump counts U.S. farmers as one of his most loyal constituencies<\/a>, but the administration\u2019s recent move to expand economic support for Argentina has drawn the ire of the agriculture industry.<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on social media<\/a> on Wednesday that he and Trump spoke at length with Argentina president Javier Milei about plants to financially support Argentina to assist in its stabilization. The Treasury is negotiating with Argentina for a $20 billion swap line with Argentina\u2019s central bank, Bessent said on X.com<\/a>. As part of its effort to increase the flow of capital, Argentina also suspended its export taxes this week, including on soybeans.<\/p>\n

Amid the negotiations with the U.S., Argentina reportedly strengthened its trade partnership with China, whch ordered at least 10 cargoes of soybeans from the South American country, according to Reuters<\/a>, which cited multiple traders.<\/p>\n

The moves have dealt a blow to soybean farmers in the U.S., who are strongly dependent on exports to China, and have continued to be priced out of the global market due to tariffs hiking the cost of their crop in the midst of its busy harvest season. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s weekly export summaries<\/a>, China has not bought U.S. soybeans since May.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe frustration is overwhelming,\u201d the American Soybean Association (ASA) President Caleb Ragland said in a statement<\/a> on Wednesday. \u201cU.S. soybean prices are falling, harvest is underway, and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. government is extending $200 billion in economic support to Argentina while that country drops its soybean export taxes to sell 20 shiploads of Argentine soybeans to China in just two days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe farm economy is suffering while our competitors supplant the United States in the biggest soybean import market in the world,\u201d it concluded.<\/p>\n

Soybeans accounted for nearly 20% of the U.S.\u2019s cash crop receipts in 2024, raking in $46.8 billion, according to data<\/a> from the USDA. About one quarter of all soybean exports from the U.S. go to China, but retaliatory tariffs from China as a result of the ongoing trade war\u2014which have reached 34%\u2014have hobbled U.S. farmers, while South American countries like Brazil and Argentina have racked up market share. As of 2024, Brazil made up 71% of the Chinese soybean imports<\/a>, according to the ASA, up from 2% three decades ago.<\/p>\n

For the farmers, the changing market share dynamics isn\u2019t personal, it\u2019s just business, according to Ryan Loy, assistant professor and extension economist for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of politics involved, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s a function of who is cheaper on the market,\u201d Loy told Fortune.<\/p>\n

Economic impact on rural America<\/strong><\/p>\n

This market squeeze has an outsized impact on rural communities, where farming can make up 20% of a county\u2019s employment<\/a>. As global demand for U.S. soybeans waver, so, too, do profits for farmers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In parts of the Midwest like North and South Dakota and Minnesota, the majority of soybeans get routed to ports in the Pacific Northwest to be shipped overseas. But with fewer shipments of soybeans being exported, supply is piling up, driving down the cost of soybeans. Since its 2022 peak, soybean prices have fallen about 40%<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

While some soybeans can go to crushing facilities<\/a> to be repurposed as oil or used in ethanol, many soybean farms aren\u2019t located near plants able to process and use the crop domestically, Kyle Jore, an economist and farmer in Thief River Falls in northwest Minnesota and secretary of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, said even if a trade with with China were to be made today, transportation bookings to take the crop out of state are full because of the busy corn harvest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re probably just going to plan to sit on the soybeans and wait,\u201d Jore said.<\/p>\n

Many farmers trying to cut their losses will sell their soybeans to agricultural co-ops who will buy the crops, but at a much lower price than market rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime, though, the producers that sell are taking large losses,\u201d Jore said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re going to have to feel those losses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Extension economist Loy warned of the \u201cripple effects\u201d of strained farmers on rural America.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf farms in those rural communities aren\u2019t successful, if they face financial hardships, then those rural communities also suffer, too,\u201d Loy said. \u201cAll of these rural communities rely on agriculture to some degree. In its most extreme, if farms close up and businesses no longer have the customers there\u2014or at least the customers don\u2019t have the money to support them\u2014businesses close and people move out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aftershocks from the 2018 trade war<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jore called this feeling of concern for the wellbeing of the agricultural economy \u201cdeja vu.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

During Trump\u2019s first administration, U.S. farmers lost $27 billion in agricultural exports between mid-2018 and 2019 as a result of a trade war with China, according to a 2022 report<\/a> from the USDA. During that same period, the U.S. market share of Chinese soybean imports plummeted to a 30-year low of 19%, the ASA reported. Brazil\u2019s market share reached its peach of 75%. Years later, U.S. soybean farmers have yet to fully recover, Todd Main, the director of market development at the Illinois Soybean Association, told Fortune.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe takeaway that we have from the data of the last time we did this is that the U.S. lost about 20% of our market share, and it never came back,\u201d Main said.<\/p>\n

While some soybean producers have been able to make up revenues through different export markets like the European Union (which generated only $2.45 billion in U.S. export revenues in 2024 compared to China\u2019s $12.64 billion, per the USDA<\/a>), the big difference between Trump\u2019s first trade war versus this one is the price of tools and equipment\u2014in part due to the steep tariffs. According to August data<\/a> from the North Dakota State University Agricultural Trade Monitor, self-propelled machines like tractors have been hit with a more than 15% tariff rate. Tariffs on herbicides and some pesticides have propelled prices up 25%, partially because of trade disputes with Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though in 2018 we were seeing similar revenues, this time around, we have significantly higher [input], so our margins are much more negative,\u201d Jore said.<\/p>\n

What comes next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soybean producers have gotten creative to try to build a profitable infrastructure outside of exports to China. The Illinois Soybean Association created the Soy Innovation Center<\/a> to develop sustainable uses for processed soy, such as oil, that can be used domestically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The White House, for its part, has floated developing an agricultural subsidy program using revenue from tariffs<\/a>, according to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins<\/a>. The first Trump administration provided farmers with a $28 billion bailout<\/a>. But while the aid was able to nearly completely replace lost revenues, making up for lost global market share is a slower\u2014and not guaranteed\u2014recovery. A similar bailout today would yield similar results, Wendong Zhang, an associate professor of applied economics and policy at Cornell University\u2019s SC Johnson School of Business, told Fortune.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will compensate for the immediate economic losses due to tariffs, but it doesn\u2019t necessarily improve the long-term competitiveness of agriculture on the global stage,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n

Farmers aren\u2019t banking on a bailout, either. They\u2019re looking for a trade deal\u2014or at least stable enough ground to grow their businesses, Illinois Soybean Association\u2019s Main said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can grow anything. What we really want is good relations with our trading partners,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want markets. We don\u2019t want bailouts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump counts U.S. farmers as one of his most loyal constituencies, but the administration\u2019s recent move…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":255072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2906,2841,64,79,12833,4053,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-255071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-agriculture","9":"tag-argentina","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-farming","13":"tag-tariffs-and-trade","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115268246767639602","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}