NOT ALL TARIFFS ARE BAD FOR AMERICAN CONSUMERS

The disaster for the American soybean farmers is well known.  Because of tariffs enacted by China, the price of American grown soybeans has plummeted* so if you love soybeans, this is your chance to eat heartily at little cost.

Less well known is the effect of record production and tariffs on American grown meat of all kinds.  The figure shows that American produced meats in storage are at an all-time high, more than 2.5 billion pounds.**  Both China (now 68% tariff) and Mexico (20% tariff) have put duties on pork but the figure seems to show the width of the pork band in the figure to be pretty constant.  Some weeks the USDA reports zero exports of pork.  Chickens, however, in storage are definitely higher.  The width of the beef band is also increasing.  Turkey in storage bounces around greatly but currently is near an all-time high.

(Click on figure to enlarge)

For now, American cold storage facilities are trying to find ways to store more meat including building new facilities.  I conclude we should start seeing some very good deals on meats at the supermarkets.

* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2018/07/economy-tariffs-and-stock-markets.html
** https://www.wsj.com/articles/meat-piles-up-as-production-grows-and-exports-slow-1532268000?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=2