USDA Tariff Compensation and EU Soybean Purchases
From the Ag Information Network, I'm Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.**USDA officials are scrambling to devise programs to help compensate farmers for losses expected in the wake of new Chinese tariffs, but it won't be easy.
Agri-Pulse reports, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue has pledged the department won't abandon farmers and stressed that President Trump stands behind his plan to find some form of assistance.
The USDA has been scrutinizing legal paths for emergency assistance under the Commodity Credit Corporation and trying to match those with the wide variety of farm commodities targeted by China.
https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/10808-usda-works-to-devise-emergency-trade-aid-to-counter-chinese-tariffs
**Syngenta has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Strider, a Brazilian AgTech company focused on operational management solutions for farms.
Agrimarketing.com reports completion of the transaction is subject to clearance by the merger-control authorities. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
Strider is important to the Latin American digital ag market and the transaction will enhance Syngenta's ability to bring greater value to customers through innovative digital solutions for the management of on-farm information.
https://www.agrimarketing.com/s/116221
**Escalating tensions between the U.S. and China have triggered a flurry of U.S. soybean purchases by European buyers, in one of the first signs that trade tariff threats lobbed between the world's top two economies are disrupting global commodity trade flows.
News of the sales, confirmed by the USDA, helped to underpin benchmark Chicago Board of Trade soybean prices after U.S. President Trump threatened to slap tariffs on an additional $100 billion of Chinese goods.
https://www.agriculture.com/markets/newswire/rpt-as-us-and-china-trade-tariff-barbs-others-scoop-up-us-soybeans