Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is downplaying the potential impact on agriculture of former President Donald Trump’s proposal to impose across-the-board tariffs on U.S. imports. At the same time, he says Trump’s tariff policy is critical to protecting U.S. industry, and he denies that tariffs would increase consumer prices.
During an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Vance was asked whether Trump’s tariff plan should be viewed as a “negotiating cudgel.”
“I do think that it’s a negotiation,” Vance responded. “He believes in using tariffs for negotiation. He also does believe in using tariffs to induce more manufacturing and capital formation in our country.”
CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin then pressed Vance on concerns that U.S. farmers could be hit with retaliatory tariffs. Vance responded by pointing to the growing ag trade deficit.
“One of the critical mistakes that we made … is that we became dependent on foreign nations for the goods that we need. Now, we’re becoming dependent on foreign nations for the food that our children need to eat. This is insanity. We have to be self-reliant.”
Take note: Vance asserted that the U.S. was a “net food exporter” under Trump’s trade policies. The U.S. actually ran deficits of $1.3 billion in fiscal 2019 and $3.7 billion in FY20. The ag trade deficit is projected to hit $42.5 billion in FY25.
The American Farm Bureau Federation has released the presidential campaign responses to the group’s questionnaire on ag policy. Read our report here.
Hoeven: Tariffs could help correct ag trade deficit
North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven goes a step further than Vance on this week’s Agri-Pulse Newsmakers and says Trump’s proposed tariffs could actually help U.S. farmers.
“If we’re forcing other countries to play fair on a level playing field, that has an appropriate role that not only helps us to produce more here at home... but it enables us to export more in the long run because it’s forcing our trading partners to play fair,” Hoeven says.
Newsmakers will be available today at Agri-Pulse.com.
Photo caption: Incoming National Sorghum Producers Chairwoman Amy France and American Soybean Association director Ronnie Russell talk on Newsmakers with host Andrew Huneke about the diversified row crop farmer teams that lobbied for the farm bill on Capitol Hill this week.9th Circuit considers arguments in CAFO case
A federal appeals court panel appeared skeptical of arguments made by both sides Thursday in a case involving EPA’s efforts to regulate discharges from concentrated animal feeding operations.
Justice Department attorney Paul Cirino defended EPA’s decision in August 2023 to deny a petition from environmental groups seeking tighter regulation of CAFOs and continue working on a study about the best ways to address pollution.
David Chung, attorney for ag groups including the American Farm Bureau Federation, pointed to a 2005 decision from a federal appeals court that upheld EPA’s approach.
Food & Water Watch attorney Emily Miller, however, said EPA has a duty to consider new information gathered on CAFOs over the subsequent 19 years and that when EPA denied the petition, it failed to do that adequately.
“We are simply asking for a remand and for EPA to reconsider the petition consistent with its obligations under the Clean Water Act and the Administrative Procedure Act,” she told Circuit Judge Jay Bybee. “If EPA were to actually comply with [those] obligations in replying to the petition, we're confident that the answer would be that a rulemaking is warranted,”
CDC to roll out farmworker flu vaccination effort next month
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to roll out a program next month to get seasonal flu vaccinations to about 200,000 farmworkers at risk of being infected with H5N1.
CDC Principal Deputy Director Nirav Shah says the agency is working with “12 jurisdictions on their approach to outreach, education and vaccination of agricultural workers. We anticipate that this effort will kick off in October.”
CDC announced the $5 million effort in July.
Farm groups bemoan ruling on 2,4-D dumping
Corn and soybean growers are criticizing a preliminary determination from the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration that imports of 2,4-D from China and India should be subject to countervailing duties.
The ITA found Thursday that Indian and Chinese exports of the popular herbicide were being subsidized by their governments in 2023 between about 3% and 27%.
“This decision to raise duties on imports is disappointing for soybean growers nationwide,” said Josh Gackle, president of the American Soybean Association and a soybean farmer from North Dakota.
Enviros call for major banks to halt livestock funding
Some 105 environmental groups are urging three major U.S. banks to halt livestock-related lending over climate concerns.
The groups, in a letter to Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, asks the banks to stop “all new financing that enables the perpetuation or expansion of industrial livestock production” and require livestock clients to disclose third-party verified climate targets. They said livestock production accounts for the largest share of global food and agricultural emissions.
"Halting bank financing of industrial livestock production would immediately and significantly improve banks’ emissions equation, demonstrate a commitment to addressing climate and nature-related impacts, and deliver benefits to the planet, people, and the banks,” the letter says.
Final word: “We have to look at experience versus some of these ridiculous predictions from people who have an axe to grind against Donald Trump. I’m of course not saying the farmers fall into that category.” – JD Vance when told by CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin that farmers were “deeply worried” that Trump’s trade policy would result in retaliatory tariffs.
