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Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

China has about 1/5 of the world's population that it needs to feed.

However, it only has 8% of the world's arable land, and 20% of that has been polluted.

The US exports $25 billion in food to China.

Now they can slap tariffs on it, they can buy food from other countries, but both of those solutions merely raise the cost of food, they don't decrease the demand.

Also, if China buys $25 billion in food from someone else we'll simply sell our food to new markets at a higher price.

By comparison Trump is putting tariffs on $200 billion in goods that we import from China. It will be much easier for us to weather their tariffs than for them to weather ours. Electronics and beauty aids could all be manufactured in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, etc. If they don't resolve this quickly we could develop new suppliers. China's economy desperately depends on that $200 billion. Even if this only lasts for six months they'll have tens of millions of people out of work and displaced.

His proposed tariffs would raise $20 billion, much more than what he is proposing to give to the farmers to help them out.

This is a battle that we can and should win.

Trump was elected on a platform to address the inequities in the trade policies, that is what he is doing.

It's a good thing the only country Trump is slapping tariffs on is China. Cuz otherwise he might have started a trade War in which no one benefits ultimately. Right?