Kansas Farmers Suffer From Tariffs and Closing of Strait of Hormuz, Ag Experts Say

By Morgan Chilson

Trade tariffs cost the United States about $15 billion in losses in the Chinese market alone, agriculture policy experts said Friday.

Sandro Steinbach and Shawn Arita, associate professors at North Dakota State University’s Agricultural Risk Policy Center, spoke about international policies affecting agriculture during an episode of Kansas State University’s podcast Clearing the Air.

Steinbach said the policy center studied market disruption in the United States and China relationship.

He said the higher cost of exporting products to foreign markets caused a “pretty strong” diversion in China away from U.S. products, causing losses of about $15 billion for the United States.

“Diversion means that exporters export products to other countries as well, so we have seen in certain markets significant diversion,” Steinbach said. “Those states that export a lot of product to China, they saw quite significant disruptions.”

In April 2026, Kansas exported $91.3 million of products to China, the third largest country behind Mexico and Canada, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, an economic data-gathering organization.