The Trans-Pacific-Partnership replacement that does not include the United States will take effect at the end of this year. Australia and Canada filed ratification documents this week for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, kicking off a 60-day waiting period before the agreement takes effect, as now six countries have ratified the deal. President Donald Trump removed the U.S. from the agreement upon taking office, focusing on bilateral agreements and aggressive trade negotiations. The Wall Street Journal reports backers of the agreement say it may be the most important trade agreement reached in more than two decades, modernizing agreements to reflect the rise of digital trade, services and copyright in a fast-growing region. The trade deal puts U.S. agriculture at a competitive disadvantage as it phases out ties on sensitive products such as agricultural imports in countries including Japan and Mexico.

Vietnam is emerging as the winner of the U.S.-China trade war. A new analysis by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China shows companies in China and the U.S. are losing market share, especially to companies from Vietnam, as a result of the trade war. Companies in China also report they are losing sales to companies from India, the U.S. and South Korea. For U.S. companies, the next rivals taking market share are Germany and Japan. The tariff situation could get worse if the Trump administration moves ahead with more tariffs in December against China, pending the outcome of talks at the G20 summit. U.S. soybean farmers or feeling the brunt of the trade war as China has steep tariffs on U.S. soybeans, and other agricultural products. President Trump said last week that the effort would take time, indicating no immediate end to the action.

Steel and aluminum tariffs by the U.S. will hurt agriculture more than NAFTA 2.0 will help. The updated North American Free Trade Agreement, known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, would grow U.S. agricultural exports by $450 million a year, according to the Farm Foundation. However, the organization says the retaliatory tariffs in response to the tariffs that President Donald Trump has imposed on steel and aluminum will cause U.S. exports to Mexico and Canada to decline by $1.8 billion. Those figures were presented in an analysis by Perdue University Wednesday. The report says, according to the Hagstrom Report, that with continued retaliatory tariffs from China and other trading partners, “the United States would see a decline in agricultural exports of $7.9 billion, thus overwhelming the small positive gains from USMCA.” However, those close to the Trump administration expect the steel and aluminum tariffs will be removed at a later date, before the USMCA is put into effect. However further escalations in the trade war this past week make those prospects sem dim.

Farmers National Company says 70 percent of farmland will transfer ownership over the next 20 years. The transfers will occur by sale, will, trust beneficiary or gifts, according to the company. For farm and ranch operations, land is by far the most significant asset in this transfer of wealth. Over the next five years, ten percent of the 911 million acres of agricultural land in the United States will change hands, which equates to two percent per year. About one percent will change ownership each year through inheritance, gifting, or closed sales. The other one percent will be sold in the open market, which equates to about 4.25 million acres per year on average available for purchase. The company says some of the sales will be from farmers and ranchers retiring, while the rest will probably be inheritors deciding to sell the land asset. Finally, the company says the next generation of landowners will typically be more removed from the farm or ranch and will be seeking information and guidance from various sources for making decisions.

The United States is readying more tariffs against China if there is no positive momentum following a meeting between President Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping. Bloomberg News reports the new round will be announced if the talks during the G20 summit between the two fails. The new round, proposed to be announced in early December, would apply to imports from China not previously targeted by U.S. tariffs. The U.S. has already imposed tariffs on $250 billion in trade with China. And, ten percent tariffs on $200 billion in imports that took effect in September are due to increase to 25 percent starting next year. Trump has also threatened tariffs on all the remaining goods imported from China to the United States, worth $505 billion last year. China has targeted U.S. agriculture throughout the trade war, which has decreased markets for U.S. commodities in China.

The Department of Agriculture is readying round-two of trade mitigation payments for farmers. The payments are the second half of the $12 billion program by the Trump administration to compensate farmers for losses stemming from Trump’s trade agenda. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said he doesn’t expect the payments “any later than December,” according to Politico. USDA previously used about $6.3 billion to facilitate the program that also includes commodity purchases and trade promotion. The second round of payments offers the same per-bushel or per-head amount to farmers as the first round. Corn growers will receive one cent per bushel, and soybean growers will receive $1.65 per bushel, on 50 percent of production. Hog producers will receive $8 per head and dairy farmers will receive 12 cents per hundredweight. Meanwhile, wheat producers will get 14 cents per bushel, sorghum growers 86 cents per bushel and cotton producers six cents per pound.