Can USDA Stretch Corn, Soybean Farmers’ Safety Net with Tariff Relief?
by Chuck Abbott (Successful Farming) Rumors of USDA’s Tariff Easing Strategy Not Confirmed — Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is giving himself a couple of months – until around Labor Day – before deciding whether to proceed with President Trump’s promise of shielding farmers from “China’s unfair retaliation.” For tactical reasons, Perdue has declined to say how USDA would aid producers or how much it might spend.
China imposed tariffs on U.S. pork, ethanol, apples, and almonds this spring in response to U.S. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. U.S. tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese high-tech products are scheduled to take effect on July 6. China says it is ready with duties on U.S. soybeans, beef, cotton, corn, ethanol, dried distillers’ grains, grain sorghum, wheat, cranberries, orange juice, tobacco, and whiskey.
“If China does not soon mend its ways, we will quickly begin fulfilling our promise to support producers who have become casualties of these disputes,” said Perdue in an essay in USA Today this week. During a trip to Chicago, Perdue said he would wait until Labor Day to judge the damage to U.S. agriculture. “There are mitigation strategies that have to do with actual remuneration of damages done there. It’s not baked-in yet exactly what measures we would take,” Perdue told the Chicago Tribune.
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The administration has provided little detail to its often-repeated promise to protect farmers. In April, there were rumors that $15 billion would be available and chatter about using USDA’s share of customs duties (so-called Section 32 funds) to purchase food in order to bolster prices or using the broad powers of its Commodity Credit Corp, created during the Depression to support farm income and prices, to indemnify producers.
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Complaints of inequitable treatment seem inevitable.
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China imposed tariffs on U.S. pork, ethanol, apples, and almonds this spring in response to U.S. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. U.S. tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese high-tech products are scheduled to take effect on July 6. READ MORE
