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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
The Trump administration today announced it is levying new tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, escalating a trade war between the two countries that has hit the U.S. agriculture sector especially hard thanks to Chinese retaliation.
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.
Trade and agriculture issues may play unusually prominent roles in congressional races this fall as Democrats look to seize control of the House and hang on to Senate seats they hold in farm states that President Donald Trump carried in 2016.
The trade war the Trump administration is involved in with China will result in "a little pain" for farmers, but ultimately, "a lot of good things are going to happen," President Donald Trump said in an interview with RFD-TV Tuesday.
USDA today announced details for roughly half of the long-awaited $12 billion aid package of payments and market support to help producers impacted by ongoing trade disputes with China, Mexico, the European Union, Turkey and other countries.
