CHICAGO- US soybean futures sank 3.4 percent on Friday to their lowest this year, after top importer China said it would impose additional tariffs of 34 percent on all American goods in retaliation against duties announced by President Donald Trump.
The levies threaten to halt American soybean sales to Chinese buyers at a time when US farmers are grappling with low crop prices and intense competition for export business from Brazil.
“Those kinds of tariffs put us not only out of the ball game but completely out of the ball game,” said Don Roose, president of brokerage US Commodities in Iowa.
Most actively traded soybean futures finished 34-1/2 cents lower at $9.77 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. The session low of $9.70-1/4 was the weakest price for a most-active contract since Dec. 20.
Trump on Wednesday unveiled a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports from April 5 and higher duties on other countries including 34 percent on China, escalating the global trade war.
