Kirk Anderson, 44, who farms soybeans and corn in the the U.S. has lost 84,000 U.S. dollars in the past 12 months, according to a story published by The Australian on Tuesday.
Anderson says that with his two children approaching college age, and with the price of his soybeans plumbing to new depths, he is not sure he can afford to deal with the large losses.
"Did we know it was going to drag on for a year and a half? I mean, you can take a hit for a while but you can't sustain it," the report quoted the U.S. farmer as saying.
The report said the situation for U.S. farmers worsened significantly this month after China announced countermeasures following President Donald Trump's pledge to slap additional tariffs of 10 percent on Chinese goods worth about 300 billion U.S. dollars.
Although the Trump administration tried their best to woo the farmers by giving them aid and calling them "great patriots," it can't quell their fears for the drastic downturns in business and prolonged uncertainties.
The Australian report has noted a "growing weakness of his (Trump's) negotiating position in the trade war as global indicators are pointing to an economic slowdown and even the possibility of a recession in the U.S."
It said that "no one is being hurt by this tariff war with China more than U.S. farmers, especially those producing soybean, pork and dairy."
"(It is a) body blow to thousands of farmers and ranchers already struggling to get by," the report quoted Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, as saying.
