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Throttled by U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping trade war, U.S. farmers are finally seeing some temporary\u2014and long-promised\u2014relief in the form of a $12 billion bailout.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration on Monday unveiled the\u00a0hefty aid package, which is aimed at making amends with a key voter base<\/a> that has become collateral damage in Trump\u2019s trade war with China and other top economic partners.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Throttled by U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping trade war, U.S. farmers are finally seeing some temporary\u2014and long-promised\u2014relief in the form of a $12 billion bailout.<\/p>\n The Trump administration on Monday unveiled the\u00a0hefty aid package, which is aimed at making amends with a key voter base<\/a> that has become collateral damage in Trump\u2019s trade war with China and other top economic partners.<\/p>\n But American farmers are far<\/a> from out of the woods.<\/p>\n Small-farm bankruptcies soared to a five-year high this year as the sector has grappled with trade tensions, high input costs<\/a>, lower crop prices<\/a>, labor uncertainties, and slashed federal grants and funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump, for his part, struck a cheerful tone in his announcement and touted his popularity among the U.S. agricultural sector. \u201cWe love our farmers,\u201d Trump declared<\/a>. \u201cAnd as you know, the farmers like me,\u201d he said, citing voting trends.<\/p>\n Trump may say he loves American farmers, but the bigger question is whether China does, too. Last year, China was the top market<\/a> for U.S. farmers, with soybeans being their single biggest export<\/a> to the country in value. After Trump launched his trade war against much of the world, Beijing retaliated<\/a> by snubbing American soybeans, instantly roiling the U.S. agricultural sector and turning up the heat on Washington.<\/p>\n Many farmers breathed a slight sigh of relief in October, when the Trump administration announced that China had committed to buying 12 million metric tons<\/a> of soybeans this year, as well as at least 25 million metric tons of soybeans annually over the next three years. But with less than a month to go before the end of the year, China has only purchased around 20 percent of what it agreed to, the Wall Street Journal<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real concern for me still is trade with China and the fact that that\u2019s a long way from being normalized,\u201d said Joseph Glauber, a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture who is now at the International Food Policy Research Institute.<\/p>\n If this sounds like a familiar story, that\u2019s because it is. The U.S. agricultural sector also sustained heavy losses under Trump\u2019s first-term trade war, ultimately prompting the U.S. leader to dole out\u00a0at least $23 billion<\/a>\u00a0to help cushion the blow\u2014nearly double the current promised bailout.<\/p>\n Chris Barrett, an agricultural economist at Cornell University, told Foreign Policy<\/em> in an email that $12 billion is \u201cfar less than the losses\u201d generated from Trump\u2019s trade spats. \u201cNo one yet has a clear sense of total US farm losses due to the bigger trade wars now being waged, but they almost surely exceed $40 billion this year,\u201d Barrett said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe great irony, of course, is that farmers voted overwhelmingly for a candidate who promised higher tariffs just as he had done before, provoking exactly this same response from China and other trade partners,\u201d Barrett added.<\/p>\n In fact, U.S. soybean farmers are still grappling with the long-term consequences of Trump\u2019s first trade war\u2014namely<\/a> the loss of considerable market share to Brazil. Today, as Chinese soybean trade with American farmers has again faltered, Brazilian farmers have helped fill the void<\/a>.<\/p>\n That all spells trouble for American soybean farmers. \u201cFarmers want export market access, not hand outs,\u201d said Barrett.<\/p>\n Caleb Ragland, the president of the American Soybean Association, said in a statement released<\/a> on Monday that the association \u201cappreciate[d]\u201d the Trump administration\u2019s attention and sees the bailout as \u201ca positive first step to restore certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n Some Democratic lawmakers slammed the Trump administration\u2019s bailout by pointing to the economic costs of Trump\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of proposing government handouts, Donald Trump should end his destructive tariff spree so American farmers can compete and win on a level playing field,\u201d Sen. Ron Wyden said in a statement<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump\u2019s plan to bail out farmers won\u2019t even get agriculture communities back to even,\u201d he added. \u201cThey\u2019re still paying more for fertilizer, equipment and seeds, while grown-in-the-USA farm goods are facing more obstacles than ever in foreign markets.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet Trump appears firmly committed to his tariff regime. After announcing the bailout, Trump again threatened \u201csevere tariffs<\/a>\u201d on Canadian fertilizer, which U.S. farmers rely on in trade. Such tariffs would risk further straining their finances.<\/p>\n Tariffs have \u201cgreatly enhanced\u201d U.S. national security and made the United States \u201cthe financially strongest Country, by far, anywhere in the World,\u201d Trump declared in a post on Truth Social<\/a> on Tuesday. \u201cOnly dark and sinister forces would want to see that end!!!\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n