A combine harvester used to harvest soybeans. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A recent report shows that, combined with other factors, President Donald Trump’s high tariffs on Chinese goods are costing Ohio farmers and their counterparts in other states enormously.
The report found Ohio farmers lost nearly $76 million in their exports to China this year compared to last year.
Tariffs are taxes on imports, and since the beginning of his second term, Trump has imposed a variable set of these tariffs on every country in the world — except Russia, for some reason, according to the Atlantic Council Fare tracking.
Economists say the unpredictability of the measures has slowed some business investment due to policymakers I can’t plan. Research by Federal Bank of Cleveland shows that regional businesses are seeing higher input costs from them, and many of them raise prices for their customers.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
This is not helpful because Republicans are struggling with the problem national affordability crisis.
Farmers suffered a double blow. They saw many their costs are rising due to import taxes.
Meanwhile, China – the country’s third-largest trading partner – suspended purchases of American soybeans in May resuming them last month. According to the tariff tracker, the supply hold was in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs, which currently stand at 20%.
This could do lasting harm to Ohio soybean producers by forcing China to grow and cement trade ties with Brazil, another vast producer.
In retaliation, Trump imposed 50% tariffs on the South American country for imprisoning an authoritarian president who attempted a coup.
Ohio farmers are feeling the pain.
According to him, stable trade relations with China were shaken already during the first Trump administration Farm flavormedia organization writing about agriculture.
“Over the past decade, the flow of U.S. agricultural goods to China has changed from reliable seasonality to marked variability,” said the report released Tuesday.
“From 2014 to 2017, exports followed a predictable pattern year-round, peaking each fall with the soybean harvest. This pattern was interrupted with the onset of the trade war in 2018 and then rebounded sharply in 2020 and 2021 after Phase one trade agreement. Thanks to China’s purchase commitments, monthly exports reached a record high in delayed 2020 and remained high through 2022, which is encouraging that relations have stabilized.
Then in 2023, Brazil saw record harvests of soybeans and corn, undercutting prices demanded by American farmers. The report found that in the wake of Trump’s first trade war, China was working to “de-risk” its agricultural supplies by strengthening ties with South America.
“By 2025, these forces – combined with a renewed trade war – have led to a complete collapse,” it said.
“After steady declines in 2024, U.S. agricultural exports to China fell by more than half in the first eight months of 2025. The low point came in May, when monthly exports fell to just $247 million – the lowest level in more than a decade.”
Analyzing U.S. Department of Agriculture export data, the Farm Flavor report found Ohio farmers were the 13th hardest hit, losing nearly three-quarters, or $76 million, of their exports to China this year compared to the previous year.
Ohio soybean farmers bore the brunt, losing 85% of their exports to China.
Trump will send $12 billion in one-time payments to farmers to offset agricultural losses
Six of the 10 hardest-hit states voted for Trump last year, and the administration may be feeling the heat. The president announced this last Tuesday $12 billion in aid sector.
But skeptics questioned how the one-time expense would offset systemic losses that already dwarf the financial aid.
Agricultural trade with China alone is $17 billion less this year than last year, or 42% more than the total aid amount.
By almost all measures, U.S. agricultural exports to China were significantly lower this year compared to 2024 levels, according to USDA data collected by Farm Flavor.
Sampling, listed in order of total volume:
- Soy – 53%
- Cotton – 89%
- Beef – 54%
- Pork – 20%
- Wheat – 100%
- Tree nuts – 88%
- Dairy products – 2%
- Corn – 99%
- Hides and skins – 34%
