The United States would block foreign adversaries from snatching up agricultural land by putting a 60-percent excise tax on purchases by people and companies from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela under a bill sponsored by the chairman of the House’s tax-writing committee.
The legislation was the latest attempt at the state and federal levels to restrict ownership of farmland to Americans and U.S. allies.
“By protecting our agricultural land, we will increase our food and economic security,” said Rep. Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The panel was scheduled to vote on the land ownership limitation on Tuesday as part of a broad tax package. Smith, of Missouri, and fellow Republican Rep. Beth Van Duyne of Texas unveiled the legislation on Friday.
“American farmland – especially here in Texas – is the new frontline in our fight against the Chinese Communist Party’s aggressions,” said Van Duyne.
Foreign entities own 40.8 million acres of U.S. agricultural land, or 3.1 percent of the country’s privately owned land. Half of it is forests. Canada accounts for nearly a third of the foreign-owned land, according to USDA data. China holds 384,000 acres of U.S. agricultural land, or about 0.9 percent of the total.
Concern over foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land, often a sensitive subject, escalated with the rising level of competition between the United States and China in recent years. While attractive on the domestic front, U.S. restrictions can be used by other nations to justify their own limits on U.S. investment.
Early this year, Air Force objections scuttled a plan by Fufeng Group, based in China, to build a corn milling plant 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. “The proposed project presents a significant threat to national security with both near- and long-term risk of significant impact to our operations in the area,” wrote assistant secretary Andrew Hunter in late January. “Grand Forks Air Force Base is the center of military activities related to air and space operations.”
Standalone bills to block China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from buying U.S. agricultural land or agricultural companies were introduced in the House and Senate earlier this year. Fourteen states, mostly in the Mississippi River Basin, had laws on the books at the start of this year to prevent or restrict foreign purchases of farmland. In more than half of the 50 states, legislators filed bills this year to introduce more restrictions. “There’s so many proposals. It’s insane,” said an attorney who tracked the issue.
Van Duyne said foreign ownership of U.S. farmland threatened the future of small family farms and the agricultural supply chain.
The Smith-Van Duyne legislation names citizens of and entities based in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela as well as “any country the government of which is engaged in a long-term pattern or serious instances of conduct significantly adverse to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons” as the purchasers subject to the 60 percent tax. An excise tax ranging from 10 to 50 percent would be levied on purchases by publicly traded companies that are no more than half-owned by “disqualified” persons.
Texas state legislators, responding to local opposition to plans by a Chinese billionaire to erect a wind farm in South Texas, banned Chinese companies in 2021 from access to the state power grid. The wind farm may still be built, reported the Associated Press. An opponent said it was easier to block the project on national security grounds than to persuade officials of environmental reasons to stop it.
To read Van Duyne’s bill on foreign ownership of agricultural land, click here.
A description of HR 3938, Smith’s “Build it in America Act,” which includes the 60-percent tax on land purchases, is available here.