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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Wednesday, April 02, 2025
The U.S., Mexican and Canadian presidents signed off on the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement today, taking the three countries closer to preserving virtually tariff-free agriculture trade.
Cotton growers are striking back against claims that they're getting better treatment from Washington than other commodities, releasing an analysis that says cotton's federal support this year will be lower than it was under previous farm programs.
Curious about how USDA came up with the payment rates for farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs resulting from the administration’s trade policies? The department today released the methodology it used to set those levels for the trade mitigation package it announced Sept. 4.
Big crops keep getting bigger, farmers say, and that looks to be the case this year. USDA today raised its harvest estimate for corn and soybeans, which were already forecast to be in record or near-record territory.
The trade deal struck Monday with Mexico is a major respite for the U.S. agriculture sector after enduring one trade disruption after another. But the Trump administration has a long way to go to restore any semblance of normality to the international marketplace that farmers and ranchers increasingly depend on to sell their crops.
The Department of Agriculture may have addressed many of the lingering questions about its trade assistance package with a Monday announcement detailing many of the relevant figures, but inquiring producers are still wondering how many aspects of the plan will be sorted out.
The USDA appears to be on track to unveil on Friday details of a $12 billion assistance plan for farmers hurt by the international blowback from President Donald Trump’s trade battles with China, Mexico, the European Union, Turkey and elsewhere.
Some Republicans say the best thing Congress could do to help farmers withstand the turmoil in trade policy is to pass a new farm bill. But economists say the legislation is unlikely to offer much relief to farmers, especially soybean growers, even if commodity prices don’t recover from their current tariff-induced slump.