Trump’s Trade War Could be Fueling Amazon Fires
China is substituting Brazilian soybeans for barred imports from America. The rainforest may become a victim.
The U.S.-China trade war adds fuel to the worst fires in the Amazon region in years.
Photographer: Chico Batata/Picture Alliance/Getty Images
The fires currently consuming Brazil’s Amazon rainforest seem a world away from the tense diplomacy in the U.S. trade war with China. In truth, they’re more closely connected than you might suspect.
One of Beijing’s main acts of retaliation in the fight has been to freeze purchases of the 30 million metric tons to 40 million tons of American soybeans it imports each year. That’s left it more dependent than ever on Brazilian soy to take up the slack. Chinese imports from Brazil in the 12 months through April came to 71 million tons, about as much as it imported from the entire world in 2014.