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Perdue: Nations seem to retaliate against the U.S. farm base

China promises retaliation for the latest round of tariff increases implemented by President Trump. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says experience tells him farmers should be braced.

“Anytime a nation wants to take action against the United States,” told reporters in Japan over the weekend, “they always seem to go to the farm base.”

China has yet to announce specific retaliation, said Secretary Perdue, adding that it’s a good bet it will involve food and farm products “to try to harm the U.S. producers and harm President Trump politically, and he is sending a sincere message that he will not allow that to happen.”

Meanwhile, according to media reports, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman says both sides have agreed to continue talks. An opinion piece in the Communist Party’s People’s Daily says the U.S. has provoked the trade friction, and that the U.S. needs to “give it a rest” on the trade relationship complaints.