Does Trade Policy Uncertainty Affect Agriculture?

This article reviews evidence of trade war impacts and emerging concerns on trade policy uncertainty. Trade war's near‐perfect pass‐through of tariffs to US prices favored producers and generated government revenue at the expense of consumers. Facing retaliation, prices and trade volumes were found to be lower for US agricultural commodities. The recent rethink on the benefits of globalization by major economies has led to uncertain policy paths wherein firms and consumers continue to make decisions. Using quarterly data, a negative association between policy uncertainty and agricultural economic indicators is affirmed with implications for future evaluation of trade war impacts.