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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Sunday, May 19, 2024
The USDA on Tuesday rolled out an outline of a $12 billion assistance plan amid growing anger from lawmakers and farm groups over the impacts of foreign tariffs on farm commodities.
USDA officials are scrambling to put together a presentation on an assistance program to help mitigate the tens of billions of dollars in damage that’s expected to be done to farmers and ranchers as a result of the Trump administration’s multifront trade war with China, Mexico, Canada, the European Union and elsewhere.
Farm group leaders and lawmakers railed against President Donald Trump’s trade policy and tariffs in a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing today, bemoaning the effects on the ag sector as China, Mexico, Canada, the European Union, Turkey and others retaliate.
As the world’s two largest economic powerhouses entered a formal trade war last week, the United States stood alone in its dispute with China, lacking the support of our traditional allies.
Chinese importers have already stopped buying U.S. wheat, soybean purchases are expected to drop even further, and the U.S. ag sector is expecting the financial pain to increase exponentially as long as the Trump administration persists in a trade war with China.
The U.S. and China are set to hit each other with tariffs on $34 billion worth of goods Friday and neither side is showing signs of changing course. That’s particularly concerning for the U.S. ag sector, the target of most of the tariffs China is preparing to levy on the U.S., and it has farm groups and lawmakers bracing for the worst.
The top American official in the People’s Republic of China says many of its citizens might admit to the American trade grievances at the heart of a budding trade war.
