2018 Trade War, Mitigation Payments, and California Agriculture

Colin A. Carter, Jiayi Dong, and Sandro Steinbach

from ARE Update Vol. 24, No. 2, Nov/Dec, 2020

View Article PDF: 2018 Trade War, Mitigation Payments, and California Agriculture

Abstract

The U.S. substantially increased a number of import tariffs in 2018, precipitating a trade war that was very costly to U.S. agriculture, given its dependence on international trade. The losses arose because several trading partners retaliated with import tariffs targeted at U.S. agricultural exports. The U.S. government then created the Market Facilitation Program (MFP) to compensate U.S. farmers for trade-war losses. Except for cotton and rice, California farmers were not made whole by the MFP payments. California’s producers of tree nuts, dairy, and processed fruits and vegetables were the biggest losers.

Keywords

Agricultural trade war, California farm exports

Citation

Colin A. Carter, Jiayi Dong, and Sandro Steinbach. 2020. "2018 Trade War, Mitigation Payments, and California Agriculture." ARE Update 24(2): 1-4. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics.
https://giannini.ucop.edu/filer/file/1607970056/19926/