Trump plans $121 billion emergency aid to farmers hit by retaliatory tariffs

“We’re here today to celebrate the greatest products in the world – products made with American heart, American sweat, and American pride”, President Donald Trump said.

Under the three USDA aid programs, farmers will either receive direct payments or sell their excess production to the government to be used for food banks and other food aid, Perdue said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said lawmakers are making the case to Trump that tariffs are “not the way to go”.

“Our farmers have been in nonstop, saying they want trade, not aid, and now they’re being put on welfare”, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told The Washington Post. I have an idea for them.

The Agriculture Department was expected to announce the plan later Tuesday.

The relief package is intended as a temporary boost to farmers as the United States and China negotiate over trade issues, officials said. Those affected economies have in turn targeted US agricultural products, including soybeans, dairy, meat, produce and liquor. China purchased $100 million of Washington cherries previous year, Sandison said.

They warned that new duties would be harmful to USA businesses, especially those that rely heavily on products that only China can provide, with one witness decrying the “blunt instrument of tariffs”.

“What we’ve got now is some pushback in the United States”, Holtz-Eakin said. “At the end of the line, producers are going to be producing them at a loss”.

And the Koch Brothers-aligned Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips poured cold water on the plan shortly after it was announced. “I will never stop fighting for Iowa families affected by this trade war.” .

His remarks come just ahead of his expected meeting with the European Union commission president, where they will discuss renegotiating trade agreements.

Commodity prices were already low before the trade war began, and farmers and others fear a prolonged conflict will only add to the financial pressure faced by the agricultural industry.

Sonny Perdue, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, announced the government would use the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), established during the Great Depression almost a century ago, to compensate farmers for an estimated $11 billion in losses due to the trade wars. Because it’s an existing program, congressional approval isn’t necessary.

Where is the $12 billion coming from? This reaction from farm-state Sen. The Senate has several key races in agriculture-dependent states like Missouri, North Dakota, and in this November.

Some of fruits to be hardest hit by the trade policies are cherries – which are now facing a 50% tariff going into China – and apples, which have been hit by higher tariffs in China and Mexico, with India set to also implement additional duties next month in response to US duties on steel and aluminium imports.

Later this week, Trump will visit Iowa and IL, two other farm-belt states, as he seeks to shore up support for Republican candidates in the U.S. Midwest.

But Trump has repeatedly targeted private businesses, often with his Twitter account, in ways that often lead to those companies losing millions of dollars in market value. I don’t fault the President for trying to get a better deal for Americans, but it’s not fair to expect farmers to bear the brunt of retaliation for the entire country in the meantime. “It’s as simple as that – and everybody’s talking!”

Baldwin says retaliatory tariffs are depressing commodity prices and “crushing the spending power of farmers to buy equipment and pay their bills”. These Chinese tariffs have hit farmers particularly hard.