When the Trump administration announced in April that it would impose sweeping tariffs on imports from China, the Chinese government knew how to strike back. It threatened to slap a 25% tariff on U.S. soybeans and then canceled several incoming orders. It was no wonder that alarms rang out across the farm belt: American farmers planted 90 million acres of soybeans last year, an area nearly the size of Montana, and roughly a fourth of their production ended up in China. This isn’t the first time soybeans have been wielded as...

Source: Wall Street Journal June 03, 2018 19:29 UTC