President Donald Trump launched a tariff fight with major U.S. trading partners today by implementing 25% blanket tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports and doubling tariffs on Chinese imports to 20%. These actions not only harm international relationships, markets and consumers, but also are wreaking havoc on farmers and the U.S. agricultural economy.
“Once again, farmers are caught in the crossfire of Trump’s reckless use of tariffs. Predictably, there are already signs of retaliation, with China and Canada raising tariffs on U.S. farm goods. Other measures from Mexico will no doubt follow. The last time this happened, the Trump administration paid out a record $28 billion in compensation to farmers for lost income. While the payouts slowed the bleeding, the long-term harm to relations with key trading partners continues. We need to be working with our trading partners, not against them,” said Karen Hansen-Kuhn, IATP’s Director of Trade and International Strategies.
“There is no doubt that U.S. trade and farm policy needs to be fixed, but this kind of blanket tariff is not the way to do it. Farmers have made their upfront investments for the year as they head into planting season with enormous market uncertainty. Already low prices and higher costs are likely to be made worse by a tariff war. Tariffs alone are not an economic strategy, nor are they a plan to revitalize rural economies,” said Ben Lilliston, IATP’s Director of Climate and Rural Strategies.
IATP published an article in January that explains what tariffs are, who pays them and how they normally operate.
