China just agreed to buy $200 billion worth of US products

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CNN

By Michelle Toh,

Hong Kong (CNN Business)China has agreed to buy hundreds of billions of dollars worth of products from the United States as part of their "phase one" trade deal.

The agreement signed Wednesday will have Beijing purchase an additional $200 billion of US goods and services over the next two years.

The increase in purchases will be compared to 2017, before the trade war started. China imported over $185 billion in total US goods and services that year.

In exchange, Washington has agreed to reduce tariffs on $120 billion in Chinese products from 15% to 7.5%.


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/16/business/us-china-phase-1-trade-deal-details/index.html

[Botany]

1. Too late for the 10% of Wisconsin's dairy farms that went under in 2019

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trump-trade-war-impact-farmers-wisconsin-biggest-decline-on-record-2020-1-
1028815780

Wisconsin lost 10% of its dairy farmers in 2019, marking its biggest decline ever as Trump's trade wars raged

Wisconsin shed 10% of its dairy farmers last year, according to data from the state's Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection.
It marked the biggest drop in a single year, and underscored the negative impact of Trump's trade war in a state critical to his re-election bid.
Last year, China slashed its purchases of American dairy products by 50%, helping to throw scores of farmers out of business.
The business environment has particularly worsened for small farmers.

[backtoblue]

4. That last sentence says it all

Big companies/corporations are able to survive while the small farmers struggle to stay afloat.

It was probably the plan all along. Put the small folks out of business (first round of tariffs) and then give the big guys a huge grift yesterday.

Bunch of crooks.

[YOHABLO]

5. Yeah Big Ag, that's spraying all of our food with glyphosate.

[DENVERPOPS]

14. Oh, and isn't this convenient

Last edited Thu Jan 16, 2020, 07:41 PM - Edit history (1)

That the Chinese announcement is conveniently announced THIS morning.
No to mention that Mitch’s wife’s parents are Chinese citizens and huge oligarchs......????
AND, they gave humongous campaign donations to Mitch and every Republican he told them to send money too........


Update: THEN he announced that he just did new best ever trade agreement with Canada AND Mexico that replaces NAFTA. “A perfect agreement”.....best ever agreement in the whole world...

[backtoblue]

17. Everyone in the room yesterday was a big corp person

Even Kissinger was there. And talk about a reason for a quid pro quo...trump said they should all "thank" him. So all these greedy corporations now OWE him something.

Imagine the damage he could wreak if he could control the worlds largest corporations. (Big pharma, big data, etc)..the greedy have sold us out to the new German IG Farben.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. As a comment towards those

small Dairy Farmers . I say this from knowing the Landscape in which these folks are being left behind. First thing is,they all bought the Kool Aid being pumped their way. Every Dairy Processor for years advocated Herd size increases,why,to force the on farm fluid milk price downward versus consumption which has been on the decline since the Nineties.

Another factor was the Price of money. Cheap loan rates were pumped with the Herd increase kool aid. As long as a operator had Equity in his or her operation,there was a Banker waiting to borrow them money knowing the open land needed to keep the operation going would only inflate in value over time. So if the people default,no big deal,we got investors who will pick up this land and do contract growing for the Big Guy's still Milking Cows. I say this because I seen this happen in real time with several of small Dairy Farms in my old Hometown area. Yup they bought the Kool Aid as well.

Once again,way to many Milk Cows producing more milk than the market can absorb. And as far as exported milk,it sure as hell not going to China,New Zealand has that market .

[Kaleva]

12. Dairy farmers were going under well before the trade war began

The decline in domestic consumption of dairy products has had a far greater impact.

"A recent update from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirms that dairy milk consumption continues to decline - falling 25% from 1996 to 2016."

https://www.riseofthevegan.com/blog/dairy-milk-consumption-fallen-25-percent

Regarding exports, just 15% of dairy products is exported:

https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/percentage-us-agricultural-products-exported

The value of dairy products exported to China is small compared to Mexico and we export more to Canada then to China:

https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/percentage-us-agricultural-products-exported

Exports to China account for about 1/9th of the total value of dairy exports to the top ten markets.

[Farmer-Rick]

21. Our dairy farms just can't compete with corporate money

Ever since price controls on milk were removed around the late 1990s, small farm dairy farmers in the US have been going under. They can't compete with the corporate farms.

So we get crappier milk because we got to have capitalism run everything into the ground.

[Kaleva]

23. Small family farms can't compete against the large family farms.

The great majority of very large farms in Wisconsin are family owned. In Wisconsin, there are 1999 large family farms, with gross sales of 1 million and more, with an average size of 1564 acres. In comparison, there are 2063 non-family farms in the state with an average size of just 432 acres.

https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2012/Online_Resources/Typology/typology13_wi.pdf


"In other words, Wisconsin farms have grown fewer but larger. Using these numbers, the average herd size in Wisconsin is about 170 cows per herd today. In 2009, it was roughly 100 cows per herd.

Total milk production has also soared some 20%. Numbers have not yet been totaled for 2019. In 2018, Wisconsin produced 30.6 billion pounds of milk. Ten years ago, the state produced just over 25 billion pounds of milk. "

https://www.milkbusiness.com/article/wisconsin-loses-10-of-its-dairy-herds-2019

"But one thing hasn’t changed: 99 percent of Wisconsin’s dairy farms are still family-owned and operated by the descendants of the families who began raising dairy cows six generations ago."

Many family dairy farms in the state have become corporations on paper, which may lead consumers to envision a false picture of big-business agriculture."

https://www.farmflavor.com/wisconsin/wisconsin-ag-products/family-affair/

[Farmer-Rick]

31. And yet you lost 10% of your dairy herd in 2019 alone.

In the last decade, Wisconsin lost 44% of its diary herd. And in the last few years the loss has accelerated.

Yeah, consolidation into a handful of filthy rich corporate farms is how capitalism works. When we lifted price controls on milk, the little guy could no longer compete. You can't sell milk at a profit unless you do it on a huge grand scale anymore. Same with basic clothes, fabric and even ketchup. The little guy is forced out, monopolization into a few functioning production sites occurs, quality goes down and prices momentarily decrease when capitalism is allowed to control a once functioning market. But don't worry, once consolidation into just a few huge farms nation wide has occurred prices will go sky high.

I really don't care who owns those giant farms. They are still factory farms even if a once ecologically conscious family owned them when they were small. A family also owns Wal Mart and Amazon.....so what. They are corporations. It will get worse.

[Kaleva]

39. Dropping domestic demand for milk is the real culprit.

"Americans are drinking a lot less milk than they used to. According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the average person drinks 18 gallons a year. Back in the 1970s it was more like 30 gallons a year. "

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/16/528460207/why-are-americans-drinking-less-cows-milk-its-appeal-has-curdled

Because of economy of scale, the larger family farms can produce milk cheaper then the small family farms so they can weather the drop in prices for raw milk while the small farmer cannot.

Being a corporation or not has little to do with it. My father ran a small dairy farm that never had more then 20 milking cows at a time and his farm was incorporated.

[Farmer-Rick]

42. Good for him. The local diary I visit is not incorporated.

Removing price controls set up by FDR after the RepubliCON Great Depression is what is destroying the little dairy farmer.

The problem with so called economy of scale is it usually always leads to environmental degradation and abuse. It reduces the amount of human care an animal gets. Thousands (and millions?) of cow's are no longer a herd they are a milk factory. Short cuts are taken, pastures are destroyed...killing off the wildlife in them too. Calfs are separated too young, Cows are bred too young, Minor injuries are missed, overcrowding spreads diseases. A minor drought can be excessively expensive when hay costs sky rocket. Profits are prioritized causing management to take short cuts that can lead to tainted product. Now, if you have one cow with milk sickness it will infect 100 cow's milk.

But aside from that, why don't I get a choice in this matter? You don't drink milk, you don't care, but I get crappy quality milk because our nation decided to throw dairy farmers onto the fickle hand of the free market.

But when did we make that decision as a nation? I don't remember this discussion when there was whispering about removing dairy subsidies. It was all so hush hush. And now our small dairies are failing and the culprits stand around pretending this is economics as usual...it is not. This is corporate capitalism run amuck.

People aren't drinking as much milk because the crap in the grocery stores tastes like white chalky water. Gone are the subtle flavors of sweet clover or fresh grass. That white stuff in the grocery store has only a passing resemblence to the milk I get from my neighbor. That grocery store milk sucks. And quality is the 1st thing to go when corporations takeover a functioning market.

[DENVERPOPS]

13. Add in the article last week

where the dairy farmer with thousands of cows tested his milk and found a “methyl-ethyl bad shit chemical” way over allowable amounts in all his milk.....(conveniently something the milk is not normally tested for, obviously not a required test.....
Soooo, he figured he would get out of the milk business and sell the cows to the meat industry.
They tested the meat from the cows, and guess what. The samples of the meat had even higher levels of this toxic chemical and they told him the cows could not be sold for food.......

Last week, there was also an article that the US allows a couple of DOZEN herbicides that are banned from other countries. ADM & Monsanto campaign donations RULE. Citizens Of America is fulfilling all of this corruption of The U.S. and our democracy.

We truly are one hair away from a Tyranny and FASCIST government replacing our democracy.
(Textbook definition of FASCISM is whe government and corporations merge)

Be afraid, be very afraid.....on Nov 3rd and 4th, our world will be rocked, like never before seen in history.

These Republicans will declare checkmate I the months ahead.
Think about it folks, it is all over except for Trump’s humongous military parade for his inauguration.
The Republican Party OWNS:

The President
The US Senate
The Federal Election Commitee
The US Supreme Court
The Department of Justice (Barr)
The minds of the military solders, the nation’s police, and 50+million hyper racist voters who all own a plethora of assault weapons.

Years ago there was a book titled: While The Nation Slept.......what a fitting title for the situation we find ourselves in today, and soon to be forever.....
WASF. Ps....to the Senate that wants “No Evidence” what about Monica,s blue, cum stained dress and all the witnesses during Clinton’s impeachment trial. And THAT was over a consensual sex blow job, not the sunami of corruption willfully committed hourly by this administration.....

[Newest Reality]

26. YUP!

Thanks. It is that serious and the details are very alarming.

Trump is the harbinger of an end game, not an accident or curiosity. He is playing an excellent confidence game that really seems to be what it is not.

[DENVERPOPS]

37. Read my reply to

“It’s really not good” in today’s posts.......

Thanks NR !!!

[Newest Reality]

38. Will do!

Appreciated, DENVERPOPS!

[IronLionZion]

19. All part of the plan

they screw over small farmers to benefit the big corporate farms

[Kaleva]

24. Small dairy farms are obsolete.

They just can't compete against the large family farms.

[IronLionZion]

25. Did those family farms get tired of winning?

Trump is making America great again

[Farmer-Rick]

32. Because they removed price controls started in the 1930s

They....the filthy rich using the GOP through the US federal government....removed the last of the milk price controls in the late 1990s.

Now only the huge farms can make a profit. Have you noticed the poor quality? All that milk is mixed together in huge vats. But not to worry. After we are down to a handful of dairies nation wide, the price will sky rocket and be even higher than it was ever under price controls. And only a couple of filthy rich will own all the wealth from it.

[Kaleva]

40. It doesn't really matter much to me as I rarely drink milk and Americans are drinking less

I'm about as concerned about the price of milk jumping as I am with the price of coal or whale oil skyrocketing.

"Americans are drinking a lot less milk than they used to. According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the average person drinks 18 gallons a year. Back in the 1970s it was more like 30 gallons a year. "

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/16/528460207/why-are-americans-drinking-less-cows-milk-its-appeal-has-curdled

Your comment:

" All that milk is mixed together in huge vats."

It's that way with small farms too. A milk truck would stop at each dairy farm and put it all into one big tank on the truck.

[Farmer-Rick]

41. Well, I still get milk from the local farmer

It's lightly warm in a small stainless steal vat of just those cows. It smells sweet and clean when you walk into the collection room that's off the milking barn.

The barns are amazingly clean. The cows so healthy...It is an organic farm that even has a program to bring more spiders and birds to the pastures. I donate.

The pastures are never short. Never grazed down to dirt. They always have taller stalks growing up through the clover, grass, ice and snow. Even in winter the cows are eating grass that comes up to their knees in the fields around the barn. It looks almost wild. The calfs litterly frolic in the paths through the fields. They kick up their back legs and run up and down the slopes.

I always enjoy my weekly trip to pick up my milk. I'll skim off the top from the giant mason jar and make some butter or whipped cream. When I lift the lid from the jar, the warm steam rises. It smells like clover to me even in winter when they get some hay.

As the small farmers go under, 100s, millions?, of us will miss this regular trip to collect our milk. I'll miss watching the cows and calfs. I'll miss the farmer and his family who tell me about their latest new breed.

No way buying a jug at the grocery store of millions(?) of cow's milk, mixed up losing its sweet clover smell and losing the thick fat to cook with, will ever equal that experience. It's so sad so many have never experienced the local dairy farm and now many never will.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. U.S. and China Face a Steep Climb to Meet Trade Goals

Chinese purchases of U.S. goods face a steep climb if they are to meet the goals set out in the two countries’ trade deal

Link to tweet

[Farmer-Rick]

33. Well considering China has lost over 40 million pigs to African swine fever

And that they have used up their strategic reserves, China will be buying up all the pork it can get it's hands on.

Enjoy the pork while you got it. Because the African Swine fever will be here in the US before you know it.

Out of control fast spreading viruses is just another gift from global warming.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Let's see. That's a $15 billion improvement in sales, minus $28 billion

in tax payer money to bail out farmers, leaving us $13 billion in the hole.

[Chakaconcarne]

6. Don't be silly...

we're in it for the long game... the small farmers will come back.......surely.

[Wuddles440]

7. Just like the bailout of....

the auto industry, the farmers who were the recipients of Dear Leader's largesse of tax dollars, should now be required to reimburse the Treasury.

[manicdem]

18. Did I read it wrong?

If it's an additional $200 billion over 2 years wouldn't that make it $285 billion per year or a $100 billion improvement?

[MichMan]

29. That's what I read too.

That is a pretty significant increase

[ProfessorGAC]

36. It's An Increase

But, minus the $9 billion per year in tariff reduction. So, the net is $180 billion or about 0.9% of GDP. However that is offset by the fact that the $120 billion in goods will now be unencumbered coming into the country. So, that will have some negative effects on internal production for those similar goods and services.

On top of that, the US Gov't only gets about 18% of GDP. So, this represents about $32.4 billion over 2 years.

So, losing the $9 billion a year from budget revenue and the bailout, this is barely above breakeven for the federal gov't.

On Edit: IOW, just like the fact that DOLTUS would have been richer had he done nothing but invest the inherited wealth, the federal government would have been at least as well of had he done nothing.

[yaesu]

9. That's a lot of tRump steaks. nt

[AtheistCrusader]

10. A different way to wag the dog.

[progree]

11. there are "tariffs on the majority of Chinese imports .. most of those tariffs will remain in place"

Trump’s China deal will hurt more than it helps, Yahoo Finance, 1/15/20

Under the so-called deal, China has pledged to buy about $100 billion in additional American exports per year, on top of what it was already purchasing before the trade dispute erupted in 2018. If that happens, it would be a big boost for U.S. exporters.

But there are many warning signs that neither side will ever uphold its side of the bargain. Trump has exaggerated and lied about progress on the deal for months, and the phase one deal may be more dissembling. Plus, the deal leaves in place tariffs on U.S. imports that raise costs for American businesses and consumers.

“further tariff rollbacks should not be expected until after the elections, and broken promises could lead to tariffs snapping back in the coming months,” forecasting firm Oxford Economics advised clients. “Elevated policy uncertainty will keep businesses on the sidelines until further clarity emerges on the long-term bilateral relationship.”

Trump has imposed tariffs on the majority of Chinese imports to the United States, and most of those tariffs will remain in place. The average tariff rate on Chinese imports has risen from 3% in 2017 to 19% now. That’s where it will stay.

The manufacturing sector, where importers are now paying higher prices for imported components, is under stress and may be contracting. Business spending has stalled. Farm bankruptcies are rising, with American farmers hurt by China’s retaliatory measures against U.S. farm imports.
...
More: https://news.yahoo.com/trumps-china-deal-will-hurt-more-than-it-helps-211200625.html

So let's not be singing the glory days of MAGA yet.

[rockfordfile]

15. To late Trump will be gone. This desperate act looks even worse. Trump sold America out

[Bayard]

16. tRump will be crowing about this

See--my tariffs worked!

[NickB79]

20. $40 billion in commodities, when they've never purchased over $25 billion?

I'll believe it when I see it. Their hog herds are toast from swine fever, so soybean demand is way down. What they do need they've gotten from Brazil the past year. They might be importing meat to offset their herd losses, but $20 billion worth of it? I don't think we have that much hog capacity in the US right now.

[Farmer-Rick]

22. Well, thanks to the African swine fever we know they will be buying our pork

In August 2018, China reported the first African swine fever outbreak in Liaoning province, which was also the first reported case in East Asia By September 1, 2018, the country had culled more than 38,000 hogs. Since the week of September 10, 2018, China has blocked transports of live pigs and pig products in a large part of the country to avoid spread beyond the 6 provinces where the virus was then confirmed. By the end of 2018, the outbreaks had been reported in 23 provinces and municipalities across China. On April 25, 2019, the virus was reported to have spread to every region of China, as well as parts of Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam The Chinese pig population was reported to have declined by almost 40 million compared with the previous year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_swine_fever_virus

Seems the hogs in China are all dying from the African swine fever. So, they are trying to increase their stores of pork...they keep a reserve like we keep one of oil. It is that important to Chinese. But the reserve of pork is not enough to keep up with demand. Forty million is a lot of dead animals to replace.

So China is buying up all the pork it can get its hands on. So good times for hog farmers at least until the virus comes over here. Most of Asia has already got it and they have lost most their hogs too. It's just a matter of time until the US gets the virus. Enjoy your pork while you can. Remember the Avian flu that started in China too.

Fast spreading viruses just another gift from global warming. Global warming the horror that keeps on spitting out horror.

[keithbvadu2]

27. Will it be like the Saudi $110 billion deal that wasn't real?

Will it be like the Saudi $110 billion deal that wasn't real?

Trump’s $110 Billion Saudi Arms Deal … Doesn’t Actually Exist

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trumps-110-billion-saudi-arms-deal-doesnt-actually-exist

[Takket]

28. china just made this "commitment" to placate drumpf

They haven't promised to do anything, just set a goal. They won't follow through. they just wanted the tariff cut for now to help their exports and they'll deal with the next president on a permanent solution.

[NCProgressive]

30. Yeah 5 billion now

and 195 billion after Trump is gone

[hatrack]

34. So, that works out to about $8.3 billion/month over two years .. .

So that's about .04% of US GDP ($19.39 trillion) EVERY SINGLE MONTH.

Ooh. Game-changer. World-shaking.

[Maxheader]

35. I don't need to read all these to know..

This thought....

the reputation on agreements by the chinese is about as good as the n. koreans....

Has been expressed...Hope I'm wrong...