President Donald Trump is doubling down on his assertion that new tariffs could hit next month. He told reporters Tuesday that China may also face new duties on Feb. 1. Meanwhile, U.S. trade partners reiterated that they’re ready to respond quickly and forcefully.
Trump suggested on his first day in office that the U.S. could impose new 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico as soon as Feb. 1. In a press conference Tuesday, he said his administration is “talking about” a new 10% duty on Chinese goods that would “probably” start the same day.
The Canadian response: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that if Trump presses ahead with the plan, “Canada will respond, and everything is on the table.”
“Our response will be robust and rapid and measured, but very strong. The goal will be to get those tariffs off as quickly as possible,” Trudeau told reporters.
The Mexican response: President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed a similar, if slightly more cautious, view to reporters at a press conference in Mexico City Tuesday. Reuters reported that the Mexican premier said her government would respond "step by step” to any new duties. She previously told Trump that every tariff would have a “response in kind.”
Take note: Among the flurry of executive orders signed on his first day in office were directives to deploy the military to the southern U.S. border and the restoration of his “Remain in Mexico” policy.
“The people of Mexico can be sure that we will always defend our sovereignty and our independence,” Sheinbaum told reporters at her press conference. "It's always important to have a cool head.”
USDA unveils slate of senior appointments
USDA has announced six additions to the agency’s senior staff to “implement President Trump’s America First agenda.”
Kailee Tkacz Buller, who has been president and CEO of the National Oilseed Processors Association, will rejoin the administration as chief of staff for Ag Secretary-nominee Brooke Rollins. She served in several USDA positions in the first Trump administration, including as chief of staff to then-Deputy Secretary Stephen Censky.
Jennifer Tiller will serve as both chief of staff to the deputy secretary and senior adviser to the undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services. She joins the administration from the House Agriculture Committee, where she led Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson’s committee work on nutrition assistance programs.
Read about the rest of the appointments at Agri-Pulse.com.
Senators revive push to put USDA on investment review panel
Sens. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and John Fetterman, D-Pa., are leading a new legislative effort to give the agriculture secretary a permanent seat on a panel screening inbound investments.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States reviews foreign investments in U.S. businesses for national security threats. The Biden administration expanded the panel’s remit to include screening for risks to biotech and the ag industrial base. But the panel can currently only invite the USDA head to help with reviews as needed.
“We’ve seen a surge of American farmland purchases from our foreign adversaries,” Tuberville will say in a statement today seen by Agri-Pulse. Oversight, the senator adds, “starts with giving the agriculture community a permanent seat at the table on CFIUS.”
The Foreign Adversary Risk Management, or FARM, Act, has eight additional Senate GOP cosponsors. The bill is the same as a previous version introduced last Congress. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, is leading a House version.
SAF bill revamped in 119th Congress
A bipartisan group of senators has reintroduced a bill to give a boost to sustainable aviation fuel under USDA programs.
The legislation, entitled the Farm to Fly Act, would clarify SAF eligibility in USDA bio-energy programs, require the agency to adopt a common definition for the fuel, and encourage greater collaboration on aviation biofuels throughout agency mission areas.
Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., joined Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, in supporting the bill.
Cargill agrees to settle turkey price-fixing case
Major meat processor Cargill has agreed to a $32.5 million proposed settlement in a class action suit over alleged price fixing in the turkey industry.
The lawsuit was filed in 2019 by Wholesale Grocery Cooperative, a New York grocery chain, and John Gross and Company, a Pennsylvania-based food distributor. It accuses Cargill and several other turkey processors of conspiring to fix and inflate prices through the data firm Agri Stats.
Cargill, which controls roughly 21% of the U.S. wholesale turkey market, denied any wrongdoing, but agreed to settle the lawsuit “in the interests of avoiding the risk and uncertainty of continued litigation,” according to the document.
Take note: Tyson Foods, which is estimated to control up to 5% of the U.S. wholesale turkey market, settled for $4.6 million in 2021.
Finance Committee advances Bessent nomination
The Senate Finance Committee voted 16-11 Tuesday, with the support of two Democrats, to advance the nomination of Scott Bessent for treasury secretary to the Senate floor.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner and New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan joined their Republican colleagues in backing Trump’s pick.
Explaining his opposition, Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., charged that Bessent had used legal loopholes and write-offs to lower his tax bill by more than $2 million. Of particular focus for Wyden and others was Bessent’s decision to avoid around $1 million in Medicare taxes by declaring himself a “limited partner” in a hedge fund.
“I think we ought to have somebody in this job who pays his Medicare taxes,” Wyden said.
In a statement immediately following the vote, committee Chair Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, stressed to those in attendance that Bessent had complied with existing tax law as written.
Final word
Russ Sullivan, a tax attorney and former Senate Finance Committee staff director, is confident Congress will protect the new 45Z tax credit for clean fuel producers in upcoming reconciliation talks.
Speaking at the Clean Fuels Conference in San Diego Tuesday, Sullivan said Republicans in Congress are going to go after the Inflation Reduction Act, but they are more likely to cut loan and grant programs over tax credits. “In fact, I would say 45Z is one of the safest provisions,” Sullivan said. “It’s fairly solid, the statute.”
Correction: The names of Kailee Tkacz Buller and Jeffery Hall were misspelled in the Jan. 21 Daybreak.
