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# Timeline:  U.S.-China trade war
- URL: https://www.investigatemidwest.org/timeline-u-s-china-trade-war/
- Published: 2018-11-16T12:40:15.000Z
- Updated: 2018-11-16T12:40:15.000Z
- Description: The United States has been in a trade war with China over the last several months, swapping import tariffs worth billions of dollars stemming from U.S. investigations into China's trade practices including “technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation.” This timeline shows how we got h
- Author: Kaolin Sewell/The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
- Tags: Agribusiness, Government, agriculture, China, farming, goods, imports, tariff-coverage, tariffs, Trade, U.S., #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-06-18 04:56

The ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and China has p[rompted many soybean farmers to store this year’s harvest](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-12/frozen-out-of-china-american-farmers-refuse-to-sell-their-soy?ref=investigatemidwest.org) instead of selling it as they have done in years past.

Over the past year, soybean prices have taken a steep decline as China, the world’s largest importer of soybeans, has halted soybean shipments from the U.S.

The United States has been in a trade war with China over the last several months, swapping import tariffs worth billions of dollars stemming from U.S. investigations into China’s trade practices including “technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation.”

In 2018, more than $250 billion worth of U.S. imports from China and $110 billion worth of U.S. exports to China were subjected to tariffs, according to [a new federal report released this week](https://www.investigatemidwest.org/content/files/www-uscc-gov/sites/default/files/annual%5Freports/2018-annual-report-to-congress.pdf).

And farmers are projected to see declining incomes again.

President Donald Trump’s use of tariffs has impacted many of America’s closest allies, including the European Union, Canada and Mexico.

As [we’ve previously reported](https://www.investigatemidwest.org/trade-disputes-explode-under-trump-tariff-war/)

> In the first half of 2018, the Trump administration has levied tariffs, or additional taxes on imported goods, on more than $400 billion worth of products from China, Canada, the European Union and other U.S. economic partners.  
>  
> While Trump’s tariffs have focused on foreign steel, aluminum and intellectual property rights, retaliation from other countries has hit agriculture hard.