Two weeks ago, we quoted Casey Guernsey, a spokesman for Americans for Farmers and Families, who said that "China dealt its latest blow to American agriculture today with threats of even more tariffs on the horizon. Following Canada’s tariffs on U.S. products earlier this week, America’s farmers and families are staring down a dark path with no signs of relief in sight.
John Heisdorffer, a soybean grower from Keota, Iowa, and president of the American Soybean Association, said in a statement on the website:
"Soybeans are the top agriculture export for the United States, and China is the top market for purchasing those exports, The math is simple. You tax soybean exports at 25 percent, and you have serious damage to U.S. farmers."
Cheese producers were also hard hit, forced to discount their products to keep customers, with many putting orders put on hold and resulting in the biggest cheese inventory in US history.
"We have seen large drops in our dairy product sales prices at all levels," said Catherine de Ronde, economist for the Agri-Mark Inc. dairy cooperative. "It will create a significant backup of dairy products."
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst appeared on CBS' "Face The Nation" warning that: "farmer ranchers are “always the first to be retaliated against” in these types of “trade negotiations," adding that farmers have been put in “very vulnerable position.”
Meanwhile, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said that "there are real issues in our trade relationship with China that need to be addressed, but Iowa agriculture cannot continue to bear the brunt of the retaliation from our trading partners."
In short, America's farmers were getting ever more angry with Trump's policies.
This morning, Trump responded and according to Politico "the Trump administration is planning to ease fears of a trade war by announcing later Tuesday billions of dollars in aid to farmers hurt by tariffs." The Washington Post puts a number to the aid: $12 billion.
Under the White House plan, the money will be disbursed in at least three ways, coming through direct assistance, a food purchase and distribution program, and a trade promotion program.
The plan, which has been in the works for months, seeks to ensure U.S. farmers and ranchers — a key constituency for President Donald Trump and Republicans — don’t bear the brunt of an escalating trade fight with China, the European Union and other major economies.
Trump, back in April, directed Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to devise a plan to mitigate any financial damage to U.S. agricultural producers’ bottom lines that could result from the ongoing trade battles. But the administration has so far offered few details on the amount of aid that would be provided and how it would be distributed.
Fucking brilliant! Start an idiotic trade war (which is "easy to win!!"), then when people start getting fucked, just print some money and hand it to them. Not the small farmers, of course, but the giant campaign-donating companies like Cargill.
Makes perfect sense. We are already running deficits of well over ONE TRILLION per year. Just print up another $50 billion. All good.
Here's a thought: how about get rid of your moronic trade war, end ALL subsidies to ALL farmers, including that ethanol bullshit, and get rid of the estate tax completely, so the family farm isn't put our of business when grandpa dies. Voila - the Elegant Beauchamp Solution which is 100% consistent with free markets and free men. But of course, that will never happen.
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