S everal countries have placed tariffs on U.S. agricultural and food products in 2018 to retaliate against trade actions taken by the Trump Administration earlier in the year to protect U.S. aluminum and steel producers from imports and in response to China's intellectual property rights (IPR) and technology policies. China, Canada, Mexico, the European Union (EU), and Turkey have each placed tariffs on a range of U.S. agricultural and food products in response to the decision to levy tariffs on U.S. imports of steel and aluminum. China has also imposed tariffs on additional U.S. agricultural products in retaliation against tariffs the United States imposed on Chinese goods that were in response to concerns about China's treatment of IPR. In total, the retaliatory tariffs imposed by the five trading partners apply to more than 800 U.S. agricultural and food products, including meats, grains, dairy products, specialty and horticultural crops, seafood, and alcohol. The export value of the targeted U.S. agricultural products to the retaliating countries amounted to $26.9 billion in 2017, representing 18% of the value of U.S. agricultural and food exports globally. Any loss of agricultural exports would be a concern, since about 20% of U.S. farm income stems from exports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). These retaliatory tariffs may adversely impact U.S. farmers, ranchers, and food producers by eroding the competitiveness of U.S. commodities in these important markets. Mexico, Canada, China, and the EU are among the top five export markets for agricultural products in value terms. Increased tariffs on U.S. exports to those markets—even for a short period of time—could mean reduced sales for U.S. farmers, ranchers, and food producers. Should the tariffs remain in place for the long term, U.S. producers could lose market share as buyers seek new suppliers in other countries. While the retaliating countries have placed tariffs on a wide range of U.S. products, this report focuses only on agricultural and food products. On March 23, 2018, the Trump Administration applied a 25% tariff to all U.S. steel imports and a 10% tariff to all U.S. aluminum imports, citing an investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 that showed national security concerns (see text box below). Canada, China, Mexico, the EU, and Turkey retaliated with tariffs on imports of U.S. agricultural and food products and other goods (see Table 1 ). India has proposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. apples, almonds, walnuts, chickpeas, and lentils, but it has delayed implementation pending ongoing negotiations with the Trump Administration. China also placed retaliatory tariffs on more than 800 U.S. agricultural and food products in response to U.S. tariffs on hundreds of Chinese products stemming from the Section 301 investigation into China's IPR policies. China's first retaliatory tariff list in response to the Section 301 trade actions targeted about 510 U.S. food and agricultural products and became effective on July 6, 2018. An additional list of retaliatory tariffs on more than 360 U.S. food and agricultural products went into effect on September 24, 2018. All told, across the five retaliating trading partners, retaliatory tariffs have targeted more than 800 U.S. agricultural and food products. Exports of those products to these trading partners amounted to $26.9 billion in 2017, or about 18% of global U.S. agricultural and food product exports of $150.8 billion that year. Tariff rates are only one of numerous variables affecting agricultural exports. These variables include production of traded commodities in both exporting and importing countries and market prices for these commodities; exchange rates, GDP, and economic growth in importing countries; and the availability of alternative suppliers. USDA forecasts a decrease in the value of total U.S. agricultural exports for FY2019 of $1.9 billion from FY2018 exports of $143.4 billion. The forecast decrease compared with FY2018 reflects mainly reduced soybean exports due to the retaliatory tariffs and reduced cotton exports due to slowing global demand. A study from Purdue University that aims to estimate the effects of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement found that U.S. agricultural exports could be reduced by as much as $8 billion after markets have adjusted to the retaliatory tariffs in the near future. The study uses 2014 data as the base case and assumes the long-term continuation of all of the retaliatory tariffs but does not include time frames for losses. The study also projects that the reduction in U.S. agricultural exports could also lower agricultural land prices and result in the reallocation of 45,000 farm, ranch, and processing workers. Additionally, the authors suggest that soybean producers will see the most change in the wake of tariff retaliation, with exports potentially falling by 21% and land prices declining by about 18%. The retaliating trade partners may have targeted U.S. agricultural and food products for several reasons. For one, the United States exports a large amount of agricultural and food products to the retaliating countries. Also, U.S. agricultural exports account for about 20% of U.S. farm income, according to the USDA. Further, many of the targeted agricultural and food products are produced in other exporting countries, giving importing countries alternative sources for those products. For example, while the United States is a leading soybean exporter, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay also produce significant exportable quantities of that crop. Thus, China can turn to these alternative suppliers for soybeans. The retaliating countries are also some of the leading U.S. agricultural and food export markets. Canada is the leading export market by value for U.S. agricultural and food products, while China ranks second, Mexico third, and the EU fifth. While Canada is forecast to remain the top export market for U.S. agricultural and food products by value in FY2019, USDA expects that China's rank will drop from second to fifth. Mexico, the EU, and Japan are forecast to rank, respectively, as the second-, third-, and fourth-leading export markets in FY2019, according to USDA. The targeted countries and the EU are retaliating largely in proportion to the total value of their exports that have been subjected to Section 232 and Section 301 tariff actions of the Trump Administration. China, which is subject to the largest number of new tariffs, has countered by placing tariffs on almost all of its agricultural and food imports from the United States (see Figure 1 ). Turkey, Canada, and Mexico have each levied tariffs on between 10% and 14% of U.S. agricultural and food exports. Thus far, the EU has fixed retaliatory tariffs on 8% of U.S. agricultural and food exports. China is subject to both the U.S. Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs and has responded with the most expansive list of retaliatory tariffs of all of the retaliating countries. China has levied tariffs of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, or a combination of those amounts on more than 800 U.S. food and agricultural products that were worth about $20.6 billion in calendar year (CY) 2017. These products accounted for almost all of the $20.8 billion worth of food and agricultural imports from the United States that year. The products subject to retaliatory tariffs span all agricultural and food categories, including grains, meat and animal products, fruits and vegetables, seafood, and processed foods. On December 1, 2018, President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and, according to the White House, the two heads of state agreed to halt any escalation of trade tensions for 90 days, delaying another round of expected U.S. tariffs on Chinese products. As part of the agreement, China committed to immediately begin purchasing "very substantial" quantities of U.S. agricultural products, including soybeans. While details for most of those purchases have not been made public, on December 13, 2018, USDA reported the sale of 1.1 million metric tons of soybeans to China, followed by two more sales later that month, marking the first U.S. soybean sales to China since the tariffs went into effect in July. A list of the 10 leading U.S. food and agricultural exports to China in 2017 is provided in Table 2 , along with the prior tariff rate for each product or products and the new overall tariff rate. In November 2018, USDA forecast that U.S. agricultural and food exports to China would decline to $9 billion in FY2019 from $16.3 billion in FY2018 and $21.8 billion in FY2017, citing reduced exports due to the "trade tensions" between the United States and China. Canada, which ranked as the leading export market by value for U.S. agricultural and food products in 2017, has levied retaliatory tariffs of 10% on more than 20 U.S. agricultural and food products. These products, most of which are processed food items, previously had duty-free status under the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). U.S. exports of the retaliatory-tariff-affected products to Canada were valued at $2.6 billion in 2017, representing 10% of the $25.4 billion in total U.S. exports of agricultural and food products to Canada that year. U.S. exports to Canada of roasted coffee, ketchup, various beverage waters, liquorice and toffee, and orange juice accounted for 50% or more of the total value of U.S. exports for each product that year (see Table 3 ).