Houston Chronicle 7/6/2018 By Lynn Brezosky
From Canadian tariffs on oil and gas drilling equipment to Chinese tariffs on cotton and grain sorghum, and from EU tariffs on whiskey to Mexican tariffs on industrial fans, Texans are already feeling the impacts of a multifront trade war that escalated Friday with the U.S. imposing tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods.
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“We’re hearing of interruptions in logistics and supplies for various things that are being rerouted,†said Tony Bennett, CEO and president of the Texas Association of Manufacturers. “Many of our members are holding up on plant expansions and investment until this settles down. Capital investment and foreign investment is down significantly, and so we are awaiting a method to the madness.â€
Texas is the nation’s leading exporter of manufactured goods. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that $3.9 billion in Texas exports so far are threatened by current and proposed tariffs.
Tariffs by Canada, which took effect July 1, affect some $659 million worth of Texas goods, including products for oil and gas drilling, plastic bags and refrigerator-freezers with separate doors.
Texas is the nation’s leading cotton producer, and with tariffs aimed at Trump-supporting states it’s easy to see why China is clamping down on its $477 million in Texas cotton imports. Tariffs by China have stalled Texas’ sorghum business, as Texas growers export about $494 million of the grain for use as livestock feed and a base for the popular hard liquor baijiu.
“Its really been quite interesting to go from a market that was all Chinese to no market,†said Wayne Cleveland of the Texas Sorghum Producers.
Still, Cleveland said, sorghum is a crop that can store well, and growers are confident they’ll have a market even with a 25 percent tariff. In March, China slapped sorghum with a short-lived 179 percent tariff as it investigated whether U.S. farmers were selling the crop at artificially low prices.
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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Trade-spats-new-norm-for-sorghum-growers-13055211.php
