‘Which ignoramus gives…’: Kanwal Sibal after US secretary says ‘America feeds the world’

America does not feed the world, unlike what US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins seems to believe. It is at best, one of the countries to feed the world, indicated former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal, who also listed the top agricultural producers in the world. 

“America feeds the world! Which ignoramus gives the US Agriculture secretary this kind of information,” he said, listing China, United States, Brazil, India, Russia, France, Mexico, Japan, Germany, and Turkey as the top agricultural producing countries of the world.

“The top agricultural exporting countries are in order: EU, US, Brazil, China, Canada, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Mexico, Australia. Wrong information means wrong thinking and wrong outlook on the world,” he said, quoting Rollins’ post.

The US Secretary had said that American soybean farmers are not bargaining chips. This comes after China, world's largest buyer of soybeans and the top market for US farmers, used its demand as a key tool in trade negotiations. After the introduction of 23 per cent import duties on soybeans due to reciprocal tariffs, Chinese buyers mostly avoided purchasing the US autumn harvest, and instead increased their imports from South American countries. However, during the latest China-US talks, Beijing agreed to buy 12 million metric tons of American soybeans during the current season through January. 

Rollins said that China will not be allowed to use US farmers as pawns in a trade or national security standoff. “For too long, foreign powers have counted on Washington to look the other way while they play games with our producers, our markets, and our livelihoods. Those days are over. Our farmers feed the world — and they deserve a leader like Donald Trump who will fight for their freedom to grow, sell, and prosper on their terms. America will never bow to manipulation from Beijing or anyone else,” she said.

Trump said that for a reduced tariff on China, Beijing agreed to sell rare earths minerals and resume buying American agricultural products. In his latest interview, Trump said, “It was a temporary hurt.” He said the US was doing very well against China, and all of a sudden Beijing said ‘we have to fight back’ and they used all of their powers against Washington. “The power they have is rare earth because of the fact that they have been accumulating it and really taking care of it over a period of 25-30 years, other countries haven’t. They used that against us and we used other things against them, for instance aeroplane parts, that’s a big deal. We wouldn’t give them parts for 100s of Boeing aeroplanes. We were both acting maybe a bit irrationally, but the big thing we had was tariffs ultimately. So, I said, ‘Look if you don’t open up, what we are going to do is impose 100 per cent tariff over and above what you are already paying.’”