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“It doesn’t make sense and it would hurt the Chinese consumers,”
Branstad said in an interview.
“Ultimately, the Chinese will realize we need to work together
on these issues and retaliation is not the answer, but instead
collaboration and cooperation to address the issues that have
been around for a long time," said Branstad, a former governor
of the state of Iowa, a major agricultural producer.
Curbs by China on U.S. soybean imports would be a major
escalation of the trade spat between the two powers, hurting
U.S. growers and pushing up costs for Chinese feed makers and
pig farmers.
Soybeans were the top U.S. agricultural export to China last
year, worth more than $12 billion. Tariffs would cause an annual
economic loss to the United States of between $1.7 billion and
$3.3 billion, according to a study conducted by Purdue
University on behalf of the U.S. soybean Export Council.
China buys 60 percent of the soybeans traded worldwide and over
30 percent of those shipments come from the United States.
Chinese buyers mainly use soy to crush into soymeal to feed its
livestock herds.
"China does not want to fight a trade war...But if we are forced
to enter into a trade war China has the stamina and the
confidence to protect our interests,” said Chinese foreign
ministry spokesman Lu Kang at a daily press briefing on Friday.
(Reporting by Hallie Gu and Ben Blanchard)
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