Zhang article published on The Conversation

November 4, 2019
News

Dr. Wendong ZhangAn article "3 reasons Midwest farmers hurt by the U.S.-China trade war still support Trump” written by Wendong Zhang, assistant professor, has been published on The Conversation.

A recent survey of 693 corn and soybean farmers in Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota reveals three reasons behind farmers' support for President Trump amid the US-China trade war: the $28 billion trade aid payments known as Market Facilitation Program (MFP), farmers' view of trade war as short term pain and long-term gain, and the built-up frustration with China over previous ag trade practices.


Zhang also did an interview with Brownfield Ag News Nov. 5.
"Majority of farmers support Trump’s Chinese tariffs, survey finds"

“One of the most important findings is that, despite the income shock through the trade war on U.S. agricultural exports and farm income, 56 percent of the farmers we surveyed still support President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products,” Zhang says. Farmer support for the tariffs may have received a boost from the 2018 Market Facilitation Program payments, he says.

Zhang says, in general, most farmer-respondents viewed the trade disruption as “short-term-pain/long-term-gain.”


A report by Zhang and Professor Dermot Hayes was cited in a Nov. 8th Bloomberg Opinion piece, "This Trade Rally Is One Tweet Away From a Crash."

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