KDSN RADIO News
Renewed worries over Trump’s tariffs and the impact on agriculture
Farm commodity groups are calling on the Trump administration to negotiate with trade partners and find new markets amid escalating tariffs and retaliation.
The president imposed steep tariffs last week on products from dozens of nations, while he put tariffs on Mexico and Canada earlier this year, the largest importers of corn and ethanol, respectively.
Stu Swanson, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, calls the new tariffs “disappointing but not unexpected.”
Swanson says, “Now, with widespread tariffs announced on lots of countries, including some of the ones that we see as emerging markets, the concern raises again.”
The association is encouraging President Trump to support more domestic uses of corn, like bio-based chemicals and fabrics, and by allowing E-15 to be sold nationwide, year-round.
Export markets consume roughly half of U.S. soybeans, more than a quarter of pork products, and around 15 percent of the country’s corn production.
Swanson says the U.S. exported nearly five-billion bushels of corn and value-added corn products last year, and he says the administration’s new tariffs come on top of low commodity prices and high input costs.
“We see tariffs impact us as farmers and the economy and finances on the farm,” he says, “but it also relates heavily to rural Iowa and the communities that we live in.”
A downturn in the farm economy has contributed to recent layoffs of hundreds of workers at Corteva, John Deere, Firestone, and Cargill.
The American Soybean Association is urging the administration to quickly negotiate with impacted countries, including China, the largest importer of American soybeans.
(By Rachel Cramer, Iowa Public Radio)
