It doesn't look like it.
The USDA estimates a net farm income of $66 billion for 2018, compared with $134 billion in 2013.
Early last year Trump admitted farmers would
take a hit in the trade war, but he insisted that they would “understand.”
These are “great patriots,” he added, referring to the farmers. “They
understand that they’re doing this for the country.” The Farm Bureau, which
represents the nation’s farmers, has spoken out against tariffs and
the trade war. The administration has set aside $12 billion to bail out
farmers hurt by the president’s trade war.
Russian farmers are one of the beneficiaries of
the trade war. Their soybean exports to China more than doubled last year,
according to The Wall Street Journal. Russia’s overall trade with China
rose more than 27 percent to over $100 billion last year, according to the
Journal. The increase in trade between the nations has been reportedly nurtured
by an increasingly powerful relationship
between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who
are taking advantage of an America that is on the trade sidelines.
The trade war has also been linked to the highest number of Midwestern farm
bankruptcies in a decade, according to an analysis of court records
by the Journal.
Farmers’ fortunes could change if the United
States and China work out their trade differences in talks that are underway.
But even in the event of a trade deal, China’s recently developed commercial
relationships with farmers in other countries could continue for years.
Johansson also warned that unsold American soybeans now stored could take years
to “unwind.”
As for the near future, the South American soy
harvest “would make exports more competitive in the rest of the marketing year,
dimming the prospects for an export recovery,” Johansson warned, according to
Reuters.
https://youtu.be/kOeZC5og-Yw
