It will be difficult for the United States to fully recapture its former share of China’s market for soybeans and pork even after the trade dispute between the two countries is settled, Iowa State University (ISU) Extension economist Wendong Zhang said last week at the ISU Pro Ag Outlook seminar in Carroll.

“A trade dispute is never a short-term event,” explains Zhang. “Unfortunately, tariffs have long-term impacts. This will never be reversed back to what it was a year ago.”

A 2009 dispute involving tires and chicken feet provides a prime example, he says. In that dispute, U.S. chicken feet exports to China plummeted from almost 388,000 metric tons in 2009 to 48,000 metric tons the next year, and...