Tale of Trade Restrictions’ Tail China came into the U.S. market today for soybeans, but American farmers now realize they need to diversify their markets. Perhaps they’ve learned something from past trade wars. Consider the following: Soviet Grain Embargo 1) Before the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and incurred a grain export embargo by the U.S., it was approved to import 25 MMT of American wheat and corn or 10 percent of U.S. annual production. 2) Counterintuitively, the price of wheat rose from $4.39/bushel in January 1980 when the embargo was imposed to $5.00/bushel a year later when it was removed. 3) U.S wheat exports totaled 37 MMT before the embargo, hit 41 MMT during its imposition and then rose to 48 MM...

TAGS – Asia, China, Europe, India, North America, Russia