OTTAWA – LaSalle County Farm Bureau President says farmers are ‘cautiously optimistic’ as tariff negotiations are in the works for US and China. The Phase One deal that officials announced on Friday, included agreements of agricultural purchases from the US, and a rollback of tariffs from the Trump Administration on China. President Donald Trump called the deal ‘phenomenal’ for farmers. According to the Illinois Farm Bureau, as a result of retaliatory tariffs, sales of soybeans to China were cut in half from $2 billion in 2017 to $1 billion last year. LaSalle County Farm Bureau President David Isermann says there’s been announcements in the past, but no sticking point.
Soybean prices are just under $9 per bushel, more than a dollar below where farmers hoped.