Trade tension between the United States and China may favor Brazilian agribusiness. The opinion is Rodrigo Lima, from Agroicone, think thank specialized in agribusiness.
Recently, Donald Trump’s administration has lowered import tariffs on steel and aluminum, a measure that threatens to trigger a global trade war, as China can counteract, doing the same with US agricultural products, especially soybeans.
According to Lima, a protectionist escalation between the two powers may cause the Chinese, for example, to stop buying some of the soy that now imports from the United States.
This scenario, said the expert, last Friday (16), in an event in the state capital, would open a window of opportunity for Brazil to sell more soybeans to China.
The same reasoning, Lima emphasized, applies to Mexico and Canada, countries that are members of the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, which has been in constant tension since Trump took over. According to the expert, if trade relations between the US and its North American neighbors escalate, Brazil may plead to slash Mexican and Canadian markets for corn, coffee, and orange juice.