Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Thursday that American farmers have been overshadowed and outsold by Argentinian soybean production, slamming President Trump for agreeing to soften the South American country’s economic hardship.
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Argentina recently suspended its 26 percent export tax on soybeans, an opportunity used by China to purchase more than 1 million tons of the crop, according to Reuters.
“Why would USA help bail out Argentina while they take American soybean producers’ biggest market???” Grassley wrote in a Thursday post on social platform X.
“We shld use leverage at every turn to help hurting farm economy,” he added. “Family farmers shld be top of mind in negotiations by representatives of USA.”
In past years, the U.S. has been the No. 1 supplier of soybeans to China, which purchased more than half of all American soybean exports last year. But China has bought 51 percent fewer soybeans from the U.S. during the first half of the year, while soybean exports are down by 23 percent overall this year, according to The New York Times.
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Welcome to The Hill’s Business & Economy newsletter, I’m Sylvan Lane — covering the intersection of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
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