美国国家公共电台 NPR Hog Farmers Worry They'll Be Further Squeezed By China's Pork Tariffs

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right, we still don't know if the tariff¹ threats being lobbed back and forth² by the U.S. and China will become a full-blown trade war, but farmers in the Midwest are already feeling effects from these early skirmishes. Earlier this week, China imposed new tariffs³ on pork, pressuring U.S. producers who already struggle with razor-thin profit margins⁴. Iowa Public Radio's Amy Mayer reports that if the threat to target soybeans becomes real, things for some U.S. farmers could get a lot worse.

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AMY MAYER, BYLINE⁵: As Howard Hill raps on the side of his nursery barn, piglets stir inside.

HOWARD HILL: We have a sow farm - small sow farm here in Nevada, Iowa.

MAYER: Hill markets 7,000 hogs⁷ each year. About a quarter of them will end up overseas, and China is a major buyer. Hill says China even offers a market for parts of the pig that don't make money in the U.S., like organs and skin.

HILL: They value some of those variety meats that we don't, and it adds quite a bit to the value of each hog⁶ that we sell.

MAYER: That means the new tariffs worry farmers here because they will undoubtedly⁸ lead to lower sales. Howard Hill says he's seen hog prices drop to the point where it may cost some farmers more to raise a pig than they can sell it for. The U.S. and China are continuing to draw battle lines for the next round in this fight. Now China has put soybeans on the potential tariff list, and many more farmers grow soybeans than raise pigs.

HILL: That's going to have a huge impact on the farm economy.

MAYER: But Iowa State University economist⁹ Wendong Zhang says talk about a big soybean tariff may prove to be bluster¹⁰. The Chinese don't really want to make soybeans more expensive to import.

WENDONG ZHANG: It will hurt them a lot. I feel that could be one of the nuclear option that they reserve as a last resort. They don't want to use it because it's hard to find substitutes.

MAYER: But Zhang says, at $12 billion a year, soybeans are a juicy tariff target, right up there with airplanes and cars. President Trump¹¹ insists these moves don't constitute a trade war. He says he's only trying to protect American intellectual property and manufacturing. But some farm-state lawmakers wonder why farmers are always in the crosshairs. Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst says she's concerned the president isn't keeping the promises he made to farmers.

JONI ERNST: I support the president's efforts to protect American jobs, but I do wish that the tariffs move would be a more subtle approach where we're maybe phasing it in, we're trying to protect the interests of the American farmer. And that's not what has occurred.

MAYER: Instead, farmers are once again on the front lines of a trade dispute. Threats to agriculture were an opening salvo in the ongoing¹² negotiations¹³ over NAFTA, the free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. But the way commodity markets work, if the cost of soybeans tanks in response to possible Chinese tariffs, the cost of raising hogs will drop. Howard Hill says while some farmers may be anxious over all this, few are surprised.

HILL: Farmers are used to volatile¹⁴ markets, you know? So you have to learn to live with it and do the best you can.

MAYER: Volatility¹⁵ is one thing, but talk of a trade war upsets lots of farmers here in Iowa, and they're hoping for a trade armistice¹⁶ before anybody has to sell the farm. For NPR News, I'm Amy Mayer in Ames, Iowa.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPIRO'S "THOUGHT FOX")

GREENE: And Amy's story comes to us from Harvest Public Media, a Midwest reporting collaboration¹⁷.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPIRO'S "THOUGHT FOX")

1 tariff   

n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表

参考例句：

• There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
• The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。

2 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

3 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

4 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 hog   

n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占

参考例句：

• He is greedy like a hog.他像猪一样贪婪。
• Drivers who hog the road leave no room for other cars.那些占着路面的驾驶员一点余地都不留给其他车辆。

7 hogs   

n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人

参考例句：

• 'sounds like -- like hogs grunting. “像——像是猪发出的声音。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• I hate the way he hogs down his food. 我讨厌他那副狼吞虎咽的吃相。 来自辞典例句

8 undoubtedly   

adv.确实地，无疑地

参考例句：

• It is undoubtedly she who has said that.这话明明是她说的。
• He is undoubtedly the pride of China.毫无疑问他是中国的骄傲。

9 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

10 bluster   

v.猛刮；怒冲冲的说；n.吓唬，怒号；狂风声

参考例句：

• We could hear the bluster of the wind and rain.我们能听到狂风暴雨的吹打声。
• He was inclined to bluster at first,but he soon dropped.起初他老爱吵闹一阵，可是不久就不做声了。

11 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

12 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

13 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

14 volatile   

adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质

参考例句：

• With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。
• His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱，喜怒无常。

15 volatility   

n.挥发性，挥发度，轻快，（性格）反复无常

参考例句：

• That was one reason why volatility was so low last year.这也是去年波动性如此低的原因之一。
• Yet because volatility remained low for so long,disaster myopia prevailed.然而，由于相当长的时间里波动性小，灾难短视就获胜了。

16 armistice   

n.休战，停战协定

参考例句：

• The two nations signed an armistice.两国签署了停火协议。
• The Italian armistice is nothing but a clumsy trap.意大利的停战不过是一个笨拙的陷阱。

17 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。