How Could Tariffs Impact U.S. Specialty Crops

Futures markets not only serve as a price discovery tool for commodities, but can also be a measurement of how tariffs will impact products on the open market.  However, for the most part, specialty crops don’t have a futures market.  So, how could the Chinese tariffs impact the specialty crops?

USDA Chief Economist Rob Johansson went before Congress this week to discuss the potential impact.

“We rely on price signals that we get from AMS for example.  They are out there asking what market prices are and they know what the trade value is for those commodities going to China because they are certainly tracked through our trade data.  And we know what I will mean if we face a 25% tariff on some of those commodities.  So, we’lll use the tools that we would normally in any kind of trade dispute to analyses what the potential affects would be.”

Specialty crops on China’s proposed tariff’s list include peaches, strawberries, cranberries, palm frtuis to tree nuts, and ginsing.

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