tariffs
USDA doubles Trump tariff payments to farmers to $9.6 billion
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced on Monday the second and final round of $4.8 billion of Trump tariff payments, meaning crop and livestock producers will collect up to $9.6 billion in cash to cushion the impact of the Sino-U.S. trade war. So far, the USDA has sent $2.38 billion in payments to producers of almonds, corn, cotton, dairy, hog, sorghum, soybeans, fresh sweet cherries and wheat.
Trump’s tariff bailouts would probably be delayed by USDA shutdown
Federal meat inspectors would report to work as usual and the SNAP and WIC programs would stay in operation if there is a partial government shutdown at the end of this week, according to a USDA plan developed for the brief shutdown early this year. Offices running the farm program would be closed, which probably would mean that Trump tariff payments would be delayed until the government opened again.
China takes a nibble of U.S. soybeans, but not enough to reassure growers
China made its first major purchase of U.S. soybeans since Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed two weeks ago to try to settle the Sino-U.S. trade dispute, said the USDA on Thursday. The purchase, however, was too small to convince growers that China will return to its role as the biggest customer for U.S. soy exports.
USDA expects to set tariff payment rates this month
The USDA anticipates it will announce payment rates before the end of this year for the second round of Trump tariff payments, said an agency spokesperson on Wednesday. The news followed a published report that the White House was delaying the payments.
U.S. ag sales to China to fall by 45 percent in trade war
China, formerly the No. 1 customer for U.S. ag exports, will buy a comparatively paltry $9 billion worth of those exports this fiscal year, a startling 45 percent cutback due to the trade war, said the USDA on Thursday.
Trump tariff payments flow to cities as well as rural mailboxes
More than 1,100 of the early recipients of Trump tariff payments intended to offset the impact of the trade war on U.S. agriculture actually live in America’s largest cities, said the Environmental Working Group on Monday. The bailout recipients are the latest “city slickers” identified by the EWG for collecting federal subsidies without living or working on a farm. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Trade war battering farm income
Across the Farm Belt, ag bankers forecast a continued decline in farm income as winter arrives, reported four regional Federal Reserve banks on Thursday. Low commodity prices worry farm lenders, and a Minnesota banker said that the “trade war needs to be resolved to provide stability for customers.”
Trump’s trade war knocks soybeans out of running for top U.S. crop for a decade
The neck-and-neck race between soybeans and corn for the title of No. 1 U.S. crop is over after one lap, with corn the victor and soybeans out of the running due to trade war with China. The USDA says corn will be the acreage king for years to come while soybeans recover slowly from the loss of sales to China, which used to buy one of every three bushels of U.S. soybeans.
Four times more tariff pain than financial gain in ‘new NAFTA’
Although President Trump declared the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement a big win for U.S. farmers, a study released on Wednesday says U.S. farm exports will fall by $1.8 billion due to retaliatory tariffs by Mexico and Canada. That would be four times larger than the gains the trade pact would produce.
Trump to send second round of tariff payments to farmers by year end
With no end in sight for the trade war, the Trump administration will begin a second, multibillion-dollar round of payments to soybean, cotton, pork, dairy, sorghum, wheat and corn producers by December, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Monday. The administration does not plan a 2019 bailout.
A penny a gallon is too little, dairy industry tells Perdue
Dairy farmers have lost at least $1 billion due to the trade war, so the USDA should revise its bailout plan, said the National Milk Producers Federation on Wednesday. The bailout, announced in August, allotted just $127 million — the equivalent of 1 cent per pound of milk — to dairy farmers.
Chinese ‘pullback’ from U.S. soybeans likely to persist for months
The U.S. share of the Chinese soybean market shrank during the marketing year that ended Aug. 31 and, with the trade war underway, shipments are anemic in the new sales year, says the USDA: "A large pullback in Chinese demand for U.S. soybeans appears likely to continue well into 2918/19."
Most farmers say trade war will reduce their income
These are grim times in farm country, according to a Purdue University poll: One-half of farmers say their farm's financial condition is worse than a year ago and, for the third month, more than 70 percent said the trade war will reduce their net income this year. An equally large share of farmers expect hard times for the ag economy in the year ahead, according to the Ag Economy Barometer released on Tuesday.
As checks flow, USDA adds almonds and cherries to Trump tariff bailout
NAFTA’s influence on Mexico: an interview with Alyshia Gálvez
Much of the domestic discussion of NAFTA’s effects have centered on American workers, eaters, and growers. But the deal has had just as large an impact on Mexico’s economy, workforce, and agriculture. In Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Policies, and the Destruction of Mexico, Alyshia Gálvez writes of how Mexico has been affected by the trade deal, and what possibilities for better deal-making could emerge if we took seriously the concerns of that country’s workers, eaters, and growers.
Farm state senators say TPP could be part of a trade war cure for ag
Three Republican senators said on Thursday that re-entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership could speed up the process of finding alternative markets for farm exports now that China has closed its door to them.
To get NAFTA, Canada must drop Class 7 dairy scheme, says Perdue
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue described a potential tri-national agreement on a new NAFTA as the start of a domino effect in rewriting U.S. relations with trading partners around world. "I would love to have a deal today with Canada to put NAFTA back together," said Perdue during a C-SPAN interview in which he called for reform of Canada's supply-management system."
Administration optimistic on Canada, less so on China, say ag leaders
On Wednesday, three state Farm Bureau presidents told administration leaders, including President Trump, that farmers, hit hard by retaliatory tariffs, need open markets soon. “There’s a fairly short runway,” said South Dakota’s Scott VanderWal.
Trump puts agriculture on list of potential ‘wealth fund’ investments
In a speech on Thursday, former president Donald Trump included “new and modern agricultural techniques” on a crowded list of potential investments from a yet-to-be-created wealth fund that might be bankrolled by import tariffs.