Blog #11: Takeaways From My Project!

Hi Readers!

We’ve arrived here to my last blog! Thanks so much, if you were able to attend my presentation. I wanted to provide a brief recap of my project and highlight some key takeaways.

Some things that worked well in my project include interesting research with plentiful articles and historically relevant information. For example, China has been steadily, by policy directive, moving away  from the U.S. as a major supplier of agricultural products, moving towards Brazil and Argentina. The recent U.S. tariff declaration only cemented China’s recent policy moves away from the U.S. U.S. small and medium-sized farmers will be hurt the most in the coming months and years. 

It was difficult to create certainty in this project due to the fact that trade policy in the U.S. is currently in a state of flux, with highly volatile swings in U.S. tariff policy not allowing for conclusive statements or forecasts to be made.

The significance of this research from my standpoint was uncovering the enormity of small farmers in the U.S (almost two million) providing  food products to the American public and realizing that up to to 50% of some of these products, i.e. soybeans, may be going for export! One of the principal significances of my project was uncovering the enormity of small farmers (more than 1.5 million) in the U.S., who are providing food stuff to the American market, and the fact that in certain important agricultural commodities, i.e. soybeans, up to 50% of the entire U.S. production goes for export!

Also, the impact of China trade with the U.S. is significant. In some U.S. import product categories, Chinese imports can comprise up to 80% of all U.S imports! For example, China exported directly to the U.S., in 2024, USD 127.05 billion worth of electrical and electronic equipment, approximately 26% of total imports in that category. This does not take into account Chinese intermediate products, which may be sold to third countries for assemblage into the final product and then shipped to the U.S., as a third country product.

Some further research that should be done for extending my analysis would be to also focus on different sectors: for example, the auto industry is currently in a contentious trade war, especially between Europe and the United States. Today, President Trump threatened the imposition of a 50% tariff on all European goods, effective June 1st, 2025. This might prove to be a very serious situation for Europe’s auto industry, whereas, for example, the U.S., by itself, receives 13% of all of Germany’s Volkswagen production.  

Works Cited:

1. Becker, Amanda. 2025. “Their Small Farms Helped Stock Food Pantries. That Program Is Going Away.” Ohio Capital Journal, May 21, 2025. https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/05/21/their-small-farms-helped-stock-food-pantries-that-program-is-going-away/
2. Tiedje, Bill. 2025. “Iowa Farmer Today.” Iowa Farmer Today, May 2025. https://agupdate.com/iowafarmertoday/news/article_eb4b84b0-e08f-4e4c-86dd-5cfe1e37e84c.html.
3. Logerot, Raphaelle, and AFP. 2025. “Wolfsburg on Edge: Volkswagen’s Hometown Workers Fear ‘Idiocy’ of America’s Trade War.” Fortune, April 10, 2025. https://fortune.com/europe/2025/04/10/wolfsburg-volkswagens-hometown-idiocy-america-trade-war/.
4. Smith, John. 2025. “Trump Threatens 50% Tariff on EU Products as Trade Talks Stall.” NBC News, May 23, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/trump-eu-50-percent-tariff-talks-going-nowhere-rcna208712.
5. (United States Department of Agriculture. “USDA to Gather Final 2020 Crop Production and Grain Stocks Data.” National Agricultural Statistics Service, January 22, 2021. https://www.nass.usda.gov/Newsroom/archive/2021/01-22-2021.php)
6. United States International Trade Commission (USITC). 2022. The Economic Impact of Tariffs on U.S. Agriculture. Washington, DC: USITC. https://www.usitc.gov/publications/
7. Congressional Research Service (CRS). 2022. Retaliatory Tariffs and U.S. Agriculture: Overview and Analysis. Washington, DC: Library of Congress. https://crsreports.congress.gov/
8. Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). 2023. 2023 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers. Washington, DC: Executive Office of the President. https://ustr.gov/.
9. Smith, John, and Rebecca Turner. 2021. “The Impact of Tariffs on U.S. Farm Exports: Analyzing Small Farm Vulnerabilities.” Journal of Agricultural Economics 72 (4): 215-232. https://doi.org/10.1111/jae.12345.
10. National Farmers Union (NFU). 2023. Policy & Advocacy Report: Tariffs and Small Farms. Washington, DC: NFU. https://nfu.org/.
11. American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). 2023. Farm Economy Outlook: The Effects of Tariffs on American Agriculture. Washington, DC: AFBF. https://www.fb.org/.
12. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). 2023. Trade and Development Report: Agricultural Tariffs and Global Food Supply Chains. Geneva: UNCTAD. https://unctad.org/.
13. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 2021. “The Economic Impacts of Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. Agriculture.” Economic Research Service. https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=102979.
14. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 2023. “U.S. Agricultural Trade.” Economic Research Service. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/international-markets-us-trade/us-agricultural-trade/.
15. Tax Foundation. 2021. “How Tariffs and the Trade War Hurt U.S. Agriculture.” https://taxfoundation.org/blog/tariffs-trade-war-agriculture-food-prices/.
16. Congressional Research Service (CRS). 2018. “Profiles and Effects of Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. Agricultural Exports.” https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/r/r45448.
17. United States Department of State. n.d. “Agricultural Trade.” https://www.state.gov/agricultural-trade/.
18. Wharton Global Youth Program. 2018. “How the Trade War with China Is Hurting U.S. Farmers.” https://globalyouth.wharton.upenn.edu/articles/world-economy/how-the-trade-war-with-china-is-hurting-u-s-farmers/.
19. American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). 2024. “Agricultural Exports Benefit from the Farm Bill.” Market Intel. https://www.fb.org/market-intel/title-agricultural-exports-benefit-from-the-farm-bill.
20. Choices Magazine. 2019. “Impacts of Retaliatory Tariffs on Farm Income and Government Programs.” https://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-articles/the-economic-impacts-of-trade-retaliation-on-us-agriculture-a-one-year-review/impacts-of-retaliatory-tariffs-on-farm-income-and-government-programs.
21. Congressional Research Service (CRS). 2021. “U.S. Agricultural Export Programs: Background and Issues.” https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46760.
22. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 2022. “Retaliatory Tariffs Reduced U.S. States’ Exports of Agricultural Commodities.” Amber Waves. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2022/march/retaliatory-tariffs-reduced-u-s-states-exports-of-agricultural-commodities.