China has announced on 14/05/19 higher tariffs on a range of US goods including frozen vegetables and liquefied natural gas, a move that followed Washington’s decision last week to hike its own levies on $200 billion in Chinese imports. As an answer, the US are speaking on the possibility of raising duties of up to 25% on a further $300 billion worth of imports from China.

US farmers are among those most hurt by the trade war, with soybean sales to China plummeting and US soybean futures hitting their lowest level in a decade. Trump said on Monday that his administration was planning to provide about $15 billion to help farmers whose products might be targeted.

Farmers, who are a core political constituency for Mr. Trump’s Republicans heading into the 2020 presidential and congressional elections, are growing increasingly frustrated with the protracted trade talks and the failure to reach an agreement.

Meanwhile, this trade war is creating opportunities for Latam crops, especially for soybean and corn. To this aim, Argentina will exempt an import tax on goods that are used in the production of exports, such as soybeans (the world’s top soy-meal exporter).Those products will be exempted from an import tax that the government has raised a week ago to 2.5% in order to boost the tax revenue as the country deals with a severe economic crisis and annual inflation of 55%

In the trade war between the US and China, South American farmers may have a card to play.