China Blinks

As part of its tit-for-tat over tariffs, China had acted to limit the importation of American agricultural goods. Unfortunately, life has a way of smacking you up-side the head. In this case, it is the outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) (sort of a swine version of Ebola) "which has cut China’s pig herd by a third since mid-2018, has propelled Chinese pork prices to record levels and left the country in need of replacement supplies from overseas." Thus, in the face of skyrocketing pork prices, as Reuters reports, China has agreed to eliminate the tariff increases for pork products as well as a few other products, including soy beans.

     ASF is not considered a threat to human health. According to one source I came across:

The pathogen has been spreading north-westwards since 2007 from Georgia through Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. Cases of ASF have been registered in wild boar along with outbreaks in domestic pigs in the Baltic states since 2014. The virus has also been detected in Romania, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. In September 2018, the pathogen was also found in wild boars in Belgium and thus for the first time in Western Europe.

ASF is also "sweeping through Asia, leading to the culling of millions of pigs in China and Vietnam, in what one expert calls the world’s biggest animal disease outbreak to date." More like hundreds of millions of animals being culled--200 million in China alone.