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sample of clean, processed soybeans at Peterson Farms Seed facility in
Fargo, North Dakota, U.S., December 6, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS/File Photo)
SAN
FRANCISCO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. agricultural sector will suffer the
heaviest blow from a simmering trade bickering between the United States
and China as American farmers will lose 15 percent of their net farm
income and about 181,000 jobs, a report said Thursday.
If
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration cannot rein in the
escalating trade tension with China over a tit-for-tat tariff war, the
United States will lose nearly 455,000 jobs and 49.2 billion U.S.
dollars in the value of gross domestic product annually in the first
couple of years, an agricultural newspaper in the U.S. western state of
Washington said.
A
full-blown trade war would cost America nearly 134,000 jobs and a
2.9-billion-dollar reduction in U.S. output annually, the Oregon-based
weekly Capital Press said Thursday, quoting a new research by Trade
Partnerships Worldwide, LLC, an international trade and economic
consulting firm.
Nearly half of those job losses, 67,248, would be in agriculture, and net farm income would drop 6.7 percent annually, it said.
Almonds
are seen in shipping containers in a warehouse at Capay Canyon Ranch in
Esparto, California, U.S. April 2, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS)
"Agricultural
jobs are going to get hit the hardest among all the sectors we looked
at," Laura Baughman, president of Trade Partnership Worldwide, LLC, told
Capital Press.
Early
last month, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to slap 25 percent
tariffs on 150 billion dollars worth of Chinese exports to the United
States over a so-called U.S. trade deficit against China. China
responded with the same amount of tariffs on U.S. exports to China.
Even
with no retaliation from China and U.S. tariffs on only 50 billion
dollars in imports, the United States would suffer more than 76,000 job
losses and a 1.6-billion-dollar decline in its GDP, analysts said.
This
would mean the loss of more than 7,000 jobs and less than 1 percent in
net farm income annually in the first couple of years, Capital Press
said.
A farmer drives a combine as he harvests corn on his farm near Dixon, Nebraska, U.S., October 26, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS)
"As
administration officials prepare to head off to China for trade talks,
the livelihoods of American workers hang in the balance," Matthew Shay,
president and CEO of the National Retail Federation, said earlier.
Gary
Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, said that rising
costs on farmers, manufacturers and service providers show
"protectionism will weaken America."
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