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Three local food banks in the South Oregon area are set to be given an influx of food as part of the increased tariffs on Chinese imports. According to Gretchen Miller, Sourcing and Operations Strategist for the Oregon Food Bank, Access, the Josephine County Food Bank and the Klamath Falls Food Bank will be three of several thousand food banks throughout the United States to benefit from the ongoing trade war between the US and China.
In total, 20 regional food banks in Oregon will benefit from the US Emergency Food Assistance Program. Ms Miller confirmed that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to spend $1.2 billion on purchasing foodstuffs from US agricultural markets affected by the ongoing trade war with China. Oregon will be receiving up to 1.26% of this investment throughout 2019. In total, this investment will equate to some 14 million extra pounds of extra food reaching the people of Oregon in the next 12 months. How much each Oregon food bank receives will be determined by the population of the local area and official poverty statistics.
The need for food banks in Oregon has been ramped up in recent months since the beginning of the US-China trade war, which has already had an adverse effect on the Dow Jones Industrial Average index. The decision to impose significant tariffs on Chinese-made imports has seen the People’s Republic retaliate by slapping tariffs of their own on US-made imports to the value of $60 billion. Oregon is regarded as the fifth most vulnerable state to the US-China trade war, given that almost a fifth (19.5%) of all its exports are sent to China, well above the national average for US states (7.71%). According to Census data, Oregon’s exported goods to China were worth $3.5 billion in 2017.
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According to Forbes, US President Donald Trump has placed new tariffs on around half of all US imports from China, estimated to be worth $250 billion in 2017. It’s been some 47 years since the US and China sought to end their last long-standing trade war – or dispute, with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger laying the foundations for a US-China trade deal in the early 1970s. The basis of this trade war surrounds Trump’s wish for China to offer better protection for the intellectual property of US multinationals. There is also an appetite for China to open its markets to US exports.
In terms of Oregon’s five most prominent exports to China, computer and electronic components are the most popular exports to the Asian country, amounting to $1.9 billion worth of trade. Industrial machinery manufactured in Oregon is the second most sought-after export to China and has been worth $435 million to the US economy in recent years. Although the sales of these made in Oregon products doesn’t directly affect the state’s own economy, their manufacturers inevitably benefit the local people with jobs in industry and within the port available to facilitate the flow of these consignments. Although the food bank improvements will be well received by the people of Oregon, the argument exists that food banks would be far less essential if the US were to embrace its trading allies.
