Trade with China figured prominently when Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg got input from farmers during his first campaign stop in Minnesota, Wednesday in Wells. Darin Johnson with Minnesota Soybean Growers told Bloomberg farmers know adjustments were needed in trade agreements, but “we can’t have that two-year gap in there, where we go from selling China 40 million metric tons of soybeans… to virtually nothing.” Bloomberg said the U-S must be competitive but also, “We have to have good relations with these other countries so we can work out trade deals where we try to adjust for that.”
Bloomberg added, “All of these battles with China, it’s not good for us. All of those tariffs that are put in place, American consumers are paying for it. It’s not China that’s getting hurt, it’s us.”
Johnson told Bloomberg most of the crop in that part of southern Minnesota stays domestic, but in northwest Minnesota they’re dealing with the China market — and he says the weight has been on farmers’ backs.