The Iowa town At The Center Of The China-U.S. Trade War (HBO)

VICE News
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Published 2018-11-05
After months of escalating trade spat, the U.S.-China trade war has been put on hold after a three-day trade negotiation between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and Trump’s economic team last week in Washington. President Trump touted the noticeably vague trade agreement​ on Twitter. The U.S. announced to suspend its plan to impose tariffs on China, and China’s Finance Ministry said on Tuesday that it would cut car tariffs on imported cars.​ But there’s also a more local angle to the negotiations: states have their own economic ties to China. In Iowa, a quarter of the state’s soybean crop goes to the Chinese market, part of the larger $2 billion trading relationship.​ Chinese President Xi Jinping forged ties with Iowa in 1985 —as a county level opfficial in Northern China — when he led a small delegation to visit the small town of Muscatine. At the time, China had just entered the global economy and was eager to learn advanced agricultural techniques from the West. In the decades since, China’s booming economy has fueled demand for Iowa soybeans and hogs. Today, as the second-largest exporter of agricultural products in the U.S., Iowa sells a quarter of its soybean production to China. And Iowa’s connection to China goes beyond just the economics. In 2012, Xi came back to Iowa as China’s vice president to visit his old friends shortly before he became president of China. He was warmly greeted by the state’s former governor,​ Terry Branstad, is now the U.S. ambassador in Beijing. VICE News travels to Muscatine, Iowa, a town with a special tie to the country President Trump says is ripping us off.

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