【238-240】US Farmers Preparing for Long-Term Effects of Trade War

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*【238】AS IT IS

US Farmers Preparing for Long-Term Effects of Trade War

July 19, 2018

https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=f1344y1ozpt&width=500&height=375&auto=0

Brian Duncan slowly moves his hands over the waves of grain growing behind his home in rural Illinois.

Images like this make one think of the good life on a successful American farm. But it hides the hardship Duncan currently faces.

“We’re in trouble,” he told VOA.

Brian Duncan serves as vice president of the Illinois Farm Bureau, a not-for-profit organization for the state’s farmers.

Wheat is just one product that grows on Duncan’s farm. He also raises pigs. The farm is also home to about 70,000 pigs every year. He sells their meat to buyers overseas.

Duncan said his crops “were projected to be profitable this year.” They were, but not anymore.

Pork, the meat from pigs, is now subject to a 62 percent Chinese tariff, and demand is decreasing in China, one of the world’s largest pork markets.

“Once that tariff went on, the pork stopped going into China. Not going to Taiwan, either. Not finding other routes. That market just disappeared,” said Duncan.

The Illinois farmer said he expected to earn a $4 to $5 profit on each pig, but now it is a $7 to $8 loss per animal.

“The difference between making and losing money in the hog industry is exports,” said Duncan. He added that for most hog farmers, exports are the only way to be profitable.

China’s new taxes on U.S. pork products could mean long-term financial difficulties, especially for independent farmers like him.

“The reality is 95 percent of the world population is outside these borders. We need them…as markets and trading partners,” Duncan said.

FILE -Pork is one U.S. farm product that has fallen in value since a 62 percent Chinese tariff was imposed.

Tariffs begin to bite

U.S. farmers like Duncan are beginning to feel the effects of tariffs set up by China to answer U.S. tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum.

In May 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had a possible trade deal with China.

The goal, in part, was to reduce the trade deficit with China. But this month, the Trump administration argued with China over suspected theft of intellectual property and technology. The two sides also argued over China’s system of pressuring of foreign companies doing business in China to give away intellectual property.

So, the U.S. government announced 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion of imported Chinese goods and threatened more. China answered with its own tariffs on $34 billion worth of U.S. products, including pork and soybeans.

U.S. officials are preparing to announce tariffs on an additional $16 billion worth of Chinese exports. The administration also is considering tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese goods. China has promised more action to answer any U.S. move.

As the trade war continues, Duncan is losing money on nearly everything growing on his farm because of tariffs.

“Soybeans were a buck and a half higher than they are now,” he told VOA. “Corn was 50 to 70 cents higher than it is now. So, certainly the attitude has changed here in the last two to three weeks.”

So have Duncan’s emotions.

“Frustrated…This was predictable — the outcome. There was a better way to go about this,” he said.

FILE - A grain salesman shows locally grown soybeans in Ohio, April 5, 2018. Trump’s tariffs have drawn retaliation from around the world. China is taxing American soybeans, among other products.

Long-term loss of market

Tamara Nelsen is senior director of commodities with the Illinois Farm Bureau. She says that history shows the long-term result of tariffs and trade restrictions is a loss of markets and a loss of competitiveness for U.S. products.

“In every event, we lost market share…And it took U.S. agriculture 20, 30 years to get some of those markets back. And in some cases, we haven’t gotten those markets back,” Nelsen said.

For Duncan, the long-term effect will be on the image of U.S. farm products. This is his biggest concern.

“How are we going to be seen? Is a country going to look at us and say, ‘Why would I sign an agreement with them, anyhow? If they don’t like something we do, are they just going to put a bunch of tariffs up and blow things up?' How are we seen going forward in the next five, 10, 15, 20 years? For me, that is the biggest issue more than the here and now.”

Farm income at risk

But in the here and now is the difficult reality that farmers are also experiencing their fifth year of falling earnings.

“We’ve seen farm income cut in half in the last four years for various reasons. We could easily see it cut in half again if we lost all our export markets,” Duncan said. He also said this could increase farmers’ dependence on government aid at a time when U.S. lawmakers debate legislation that the agriculture industry needs to provide security.

All of the changes have him thinking about his choices the next time Duncan goes to the ballot box.

“It’s the economy, stupid. My vote will depend an awful lot on the farm economy,” he said. "That’s just the world I live in.”

I’m Dorothy Gundy.

Kane Farabaugh reported this story for VOA. Susan Shand adapted the story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

tariff – n. a tax on goods coming into or leaving a country

route – n. a way of achieving or doing something

hog – n. another word for pig

theft – n. the act of stealing something

retaliation – n. to do something bad to someone who has hurt you or treated you badly

income – n. money earned from work or investments

attitude – n. the way you think and feel about someone or something

frustrate – v. : to keep (someone) from doing something

*【239】AS IT IS

Death Sentence Having Little Effect on Drug in Southeast Asia

July 19, 2018

Thai narcotics officials arranges bags of methamphetamine during the 47th Destruction of Confiscated Narcotics ceremony in Ayutthaya province, north of Bangkok, Thailand June 26, 2017.

A United Nations report says Asia is becoming a major center for the cocaine trade.

The UN report says Colombia remains the world’s top producer of cocaine. Yet the amount of the drug seized in Asia in 2016 was three times greater than the amount seized one year earlier.

That information comes from the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime.

The drug methamphetamine is growing in popularity in Southeast Asia because it can be made anywhere. Cocaine, however, comes from an agricultural crop, the coca plant.

Officials in countries around the Mekong River seized 65 tons of methamphetamine in tablet and crystalline form in 2017, the UN agency said in a separate report. That amount is a nearly 600 percent increase from the amount seized in 2007.

The latest findings "show that drug markets are expanding,” with cocaine and opiumproduction reaching new highs, said Yury Fedotov, head of the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime.

A drug user inhales "shabu," or methamphetamine, at a drug den in Manila, Philippines, Feb. 13, 2017.

Irony of drug policy

The apparent popularity of some drugs in Asia stands in comparison to the "hard on crime" position of many Southeast Asian governments. Many of these governments are led by a lone political party, a group of military officers or dictatorial leader.

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte is known for praising what have been called extrajudicial killings of drug crime suspects. In Vietnam, courts sentence drug traffickers to death almost as much as often as Iran and China, reports Amnesty International. The group also said Malaysia is one of the strongest supporters of the death penalty for drug offenses.

These developments might seem like a mystery for some who expect stronger law enforcement to reduce the use and sale of illegal drugs. But it is a truth that stronger law enforcement often helps the drug trade, says writer Johann Hari. He notes in his book, Chasing the Scream, that when the police take action against illegal drugs, drug prices go up as buyers pay sellers more for the risk.

Criminalization removes weaker competitors and enables the big drug dealers to control the market and hold onto power, he said.

Johann Hari is part of a growing number of people who believe the death penalty does little to stop drug trafficking.

"The drug problem is a complex social issue that demands a multifaceted approach towards a lasting solution," Nymia Pimentel-Simbulan told VOA.

Pimentel-Simbulan is executive director of the Philippine Human Rights Information Center. "PhilRights has always maintained that capital punishment…is a cure worse than the poison," she added.

This handout taken by the Vietnam News Agency on February 25, 2018 and distributed on February 26 shows alleged drug smuggler and ringleader, Tran Van Bang, 31, standing before heroin bricks seized in the northern province of Cao Bang.

Dark web

UN officials offer other possible explanations for the growth of drugs in Southeast Asia and other areas.

The UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime says it has become easier to get onto the darkweb, where illegal products, from weapons to drugs, are easy to find.

The secrecy of cryptocurrencies has helped buyers get drugs on websites. At one point in 2017, Vietnam was among the top three countries for cryptocurrency trading. Much of that had to do with investment and other legal business activity.

While the U.S. is trying to cut opioid use among Americans, its actions could affect other areas of the world.

One cause of the U.S. opioid crisis was the change to let some opioids be marketed as non-addictive because they didn't take effect immediately, but had a slow release. That decision enabled American doctors to prescribe the painkillers more widely.

In parts of Asia, the opioid of choice is tramadol. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that not only are more people abusing tramadol there. It says Asia is also the main supplier of illegal tramadol seized around the world.

As for methamphetamine, the UN agency said the ease of cooking the drug, instead of growing it, could explain why the drug is popular.

There were 86 drug laboratories discovered in East and Southeast Asia in 2006. Ten years later, the number is above 500, UN estimates say.

As with so much information, it is unclear whether the abuse and sale of controlled substances are increasing -- or if officials are just getting better at finding them.

I’m Susan Shand.

Ha Nguyen reported this story for VOA News. Susan Shand adapted the story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

tablet – n. a small, usually rounded piece of medicine

crystalline – adj. made or shaped like a crystal, a small metal or rock particle

opium – n. a strong illegal drug

penalty – n. punishment

extrajudicial – adj. not involving the legal process

multifaceted – adj. having many different parts

capital – adj. punishable by death

dark web – n. part of the World Wide Web that can only be reach by special computer software

prescribe – v. to tell someone to use a medicine or treatment

cryptocurrency – n. a money that exists only electronically

*【240】 AS IT IS

Diego Maradona Signs with Belarus Football Team

July 19, 2018

Diego Maradona, named president of Dinamo Brest for three years, wins his first trophy in Belarus, May 9, 2018. (Twitter / Dinamo Brest)

Diego Maradona is widely believed to be one of the best football players ever. He helped lead Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup. But like many former star players of the sport known as soccer in the United States, he has not done as well as a coach.

Last month, the 57-year-old from Argentina stepped down as coach of a football team in the United Arab Emirates. He also coached the Argentina national team from 2008-2010.

Now, the 1986 World Cup champion has moved on to Belarus.

This week, Maradona joined the Dynamo Brest football club in the Belarusian Premier League. However, he serves as the club chairman and not as a coach.

In a statement on their website in May, the club said, "Diego Maradona will supervise areas of the club's strategic development and also cooperate with its structural departments, including the Academy of Dynamo Brest."

Maradona thanked the club in a post on the social media website Instagram. He published a photograph of himself with his new contract, seated on a white leather couch with a Belarusian flag over it.

Dynamo Brest has won the Belarus Cup twice in 2007 and 2017. They also won the country's Super Cup this year. The team placed fourth in last year’s national championship.

Soccer observers were surprised by the former soccer great’s decision.

Manuel Veth, editor in chief of the Futbolgrad website, expressed his surprise on Twitter.

-t1-

Others on social media expressed surprise and happiness over the news.

"Maradona is ours!" one user from Brest wrote on Twitter.

-t2-

"Lost for words," Sergey Erm wrote on Facebook.

As a player, Maradona may be most remembered for his "Hand of God" goal against England at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

He was thrown out of the 1994 World Cup in the United States after failing a drug test. Drug abuse and weight issues have troubled him since his playing days.

Maradona has befriended controversial leaders as well, including Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. In 2017, Maradona met Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he said "can bring peace to many in this world."

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Tony Wesolowsky reported this story for RFE/RL. Jonathan Evans adapted his report for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

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