The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its March 29 annual Prospective Plantings report, said farmers in 2019 intend to plant 4% more acres of corn than a year ago, 5% fewer acres of soybeans and 4% fewer acres of wheat.

The World Bank cut its 2019 global growth forecast, citing a slowdown in trade growth to the weakest since the financial crisis a decade ago and a drop in global investment.

Despite an unusually wet spring followed by an unusually cool June, America’s corn farmers planted even more than they did last year.

For a US president who is publicly threatening to take Greenland and Panama by military force – and also to annex Canada through crippling economic pressure – kicking South Africa out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), or even trashing the whole programme, would clearly be small change.