Farmers expressed the need for trade, not tariffs
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Members of the American ag industry are concerned with Washington’s approach to assisting farmers during a time of trade disruptions.
On Tuesday, the USDA announced $12 billion in funding to help implement three programs to help farmers impacted by tariffs. The programs are expected to take effect around Labor Day.
But free trade is far more valuable and important than government aid, farmers say.
“I don’t like handouts, Dave Kestel, a soybean producer from Manhattan, Ill., told NBC Chicago yesterday. “I want to go out and grow the soybeans. I want to do this on my own.”
“We do not want the bailout,” James Ramsey, who farms soybeans with his parents in Shelby County, Ind., told WTHR yesterday. “We would prefer to have a market where we can take the product to market and sell it. These are dollars we will no longer be able to spend in the local economy.”
Members of President Donald Trump’s government are also criticizing the decision to help farmers with federal aid rather than sit at the negotiating table.
“The trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers and (the) White House’s ‘plan’ is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches,” Ben Sasse, a Republican Senator from Nebraska, said in a statement.
“America’s farmers don’t want to be paid to lose – they want to win by feeding the world.”
Trump’s decision is “offering welfare to farmers to solve a problem (the administration) created,” Bob Corker, a Republican Senator from Tennessee, said in a statement.
President Trump’s tariffs do, however, appear to be having an impact on other trading partners.
Recent negotiations with the European Union appear to be leading to increased U.S. soybean exports.
The EU “can import more soybeans from the U.S. and it will be done,” Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said yesterday after a meeting with President Trump, the Associated Press reports.
The American Soybean Association is thankful for the President’s progress.
“ASA thanks President Trump for this effort to increase U.S. soybean exports to the EU, as it will help soybean farmers market what is expected to be a bumper crop this fall,” the organization said in a statement today.