Thread: Trump plans emergency aid to farmers affected by his tariffs

Trump plans emergency aid to farmers affected by his tariffs

0

The Associated Press24 Jul 2018WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. readied a plan Tuesday to send billions in emergency aid to farmers who have been hurt by President Donald Trump’s trade disputes with China and other American trading partners.


The Agriculture Department was expected to announce the proposal that would include direct assistance and other temporary relief for farmers, according to two people briefed on the plan, who were not authorized to speak on the record.


The plan comes as Trump speaks at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Kansas City in the heart of the nation’s farm country.


Trump declared earlier Tuesday that “Tariffs are the greatest!” and threatened to impose additional penalties on U.S. trading partners as he prepared for negotiations with European officials at the White House.


Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said the funding may need to be approved by Congress and the aid would be temporary.


“The administration is trying to negotiate better trade deals,” he said. “In the near term is there some relief we can look at? Well, we’ll see.”


But the plan magnified objections among many Republicans that the tariffs amount to taxes on American consumers. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said lawmakers are making the case to Trump that tariffs are “not the way to go.”


Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said the plan would spend billions on “gold crutches.”


“America’s farmers don’t want to be paid to lose — they want to win by feeding the world,” he said. “This administration’s tariffs and bailouts aren’t going to make America great again, they’re just going to make it 1929 again.”


The Trump administration has slapped tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijing’s high-tech industrial policies. China has retaliated with duties on soybeans and pork, affecting Midwest farmers in a region of the country that supported the president in his 2016 campaign.


Trump has threatened to place penalty taxes on up to $500 billion in products imported from China, a move that would dramatically ratchet up the stakes in the trade dispute involving the globe’s biggest economies.


Before departing for Kansas City, Trump tweeted that U.S. trade partners need to either negotiate a “fair deal, or it gets hit with Tariffs. It’s as simple as that.”


The president has engaged in hard-line trading negotiations with China, Canada and European nations, seeking to renegotiate agreements he says have undermined the nation’s manufacturing base and led to a wave of job losses in recent decades.


The imposition of punishing tariffs on imported goods has been a favored tactic by Trump, but it has prompted U.S. partners to retaliate, creating risks for the economy.


Trump has placed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, saying they pose a threat to U.S. national security, an argument that allies such as the European Union and Canada reject. He has also threatened to slap tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totaled $335 billion.


During a Monday event at the White House featuring American-made goods, Trump displayed a green hat that read, “Make Our Farmers Great Again.”


The president is meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday. The U.S. and European allies have been at odds over the president’s tariffs on steel imports and are meeting as the trade dispute threatens to spread to automobile production.


https://www.breitbart.com/news/trump-plans-emergency-aid-to-farmers-affected-by-his-tariffs/

Good!

Not sure how 12 Billion in bailout is a good think.

Isn't it amazing money can be found instantly for anything/everything except a Border Wall or Border Security.

Trump to offer farmers $12B in trade aid

By CATHERINE BOUDREAU, ADAM BEHSUDI, HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH and MEGAN CASSELLA
07/24/2018 10:04 AM EDT
Updated 07/24/2018 01:32 PM EDT

The Trump administration is planning to ease fears of a trade war by announcing Tuesday about $12 billion in aid to farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs, according to three sources familiar with the plan.

The administration's plan is expected to use two commodity support programs in the farm bill, as well as the Agriculture Department’s broad authority to stabilize the agricultural economy during times of turmoil by buying up excess supply. The plan is also expected to focus on providing aid to the dairy sector in particular, one of the sources said.

The plan has been in the works for months. It seeks to ensure that U.S. farmers and ranchers — a key constituency for President Donald Trump and Republicans — don’t bear the brunt of an escalating trade fight with China, the European Union and other major economies as the administration pursues an aggressive course to rebalance America's trade relationships. Trump's moves to slap tariffs on imports from some of America‘s largest foreign buyers have prompted retaliation against U.S. farm goods like pork, beef, soybeans, sorghum and a range of fruits.

The administration's trade aid plan is also a bid to shore up support among a slice of the rural electorate ahead of the midterm elections. But it has been criticized by some parts of the agriculture industry and is also sparking questions about whether other sectors suffering from retaliation will receive assistance.

“It can’t just be about agriculture," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Tuesday, adding that he is waiting for the administration to provide more information on its plan.

Trump this week is touring Midwestern farm states like Missouri, Illinois and Iowa, where he will likely get inundated with questions about his trade agenda, which has been rebuked by a number of U.S. industries, including the agricultural sector and the business community in general, along with many members of Congress.

The president’s interest in reassuring an anxious farm sector was evident on Monday when he gave a shout-out to farmers during an event at the White House while unveiling new campaign-style hats that say, “Make Our Farmers Great Again.”

“Make our farmers great again. That’s what’s happening,” Trump said, as he showed off one of the green hats with yellow lettering — a color scheme resembling that used by tractor maker John Deere. Trump said he just had the new hats made.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a vocal critic of Trump on trade, blasted the tariff aid as a way of giving farmers "gold crutches" and warned that the current direction of U.S. trade policy could lead to economic circumstances similar to the Great Depression era.

“America’s farmers don’t want to be paid to lose — they want to win by feeding the world,” Sasse said in a statement. “This administration’s tariffs and bailouts aren’t going to make America great again — they’re just going to make it 1929 again.”

Trump, back in April, directed Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to devise a plan to mitigate any financial damage to U.S. agricultural producers’ bottom lines that could result from ongoing trade battles. But the administration has offered few details on the amount of aid that would be provided and how it would be distributed.

As recently as last month, Perdue said it was premature to determine whether his agency needed to provide farmers with subsidies to offset trade losses because it was too soon to gauge the effects of retaliatory tariffs on farmers. Perdue was spotted wearing a “Make Our Farmers Great Again” hat.

Farmers and the majority of farm-state lawmakers have previously appeared to be lukewarm on the idea of the government doling out aid to offset losses due to tariffs and drops in the market. Many have told POLITICO they would prefer the Trump administration to expand access to foreign markets, rather than start spats with trading partners that lead them to erect barriers on U.S. exports, restrict access and seek out other sources of supply.

"The best relief for the president’s trade war would be ending the trade war," Brian Kuehl, executive director of the advocacy group Farmers for Free Trade, said in a statement Tuesday. He said farmers need trade policies that promote stability and allow them to plan for the future.

"This proposed action would only be a short-term attempt at masking the long-term damage caused by tariffs," Kuehl added.

Farmers for Free Trade is funded by the American Farm Bureau Federation — the nation's largest farm group — and other industry trade associations, like the National Pork Producers Council and National Corn Growers Association.

At a Senate Finance Committee hearing last month, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who was testifying, that he had heard a group of senators tell the president at a recent meeting that “we don't want money from the Treasury — we want markets."

"I think he heard very clearly the comment from the farm state representatives that they don't want government aid," Ross said in response, offering no details on the administration's plans.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) told POLITICO recently that tariff retaliation could have long-term effects on access to foreign markets.

“I think the question in farm country that is equal to what’s happening now is: What is our future down the road? How do we put these trade agreements back together? Once you lose a market, you lose it,” he said. “We are trying to make the point that we don’t want aid, we want trade.”

The administration has been considering a two-part approach to support farmers' incomes. One part of the plan would provide payments to farmers through the Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage programs, which cover traditional commodities like corn, soybeans and wheat, according to the sources familiar with the plan.

Payments under PLC and ARC are triggered when prices dip below certain levels set by Congress, or farm revenue at the county level comes in below a guaranteed amount, respectively.

Another tool USDA plans to use is its authority under an obscure entity known as the Commodity Credit Corporation to buy up excess supply on the market in an effort to boost domestic prices. The government used this authority in May when USDA announced it would purchase excess cheddar cheese and distribute the product to federal nutrition assistance programs. The dairy industry has suffered in recent years as prices have been driven down by a glut of product on the market.

Sen. John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican who serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said Tuesday he believes the administration is looking to deliver aid in the short term in hopes that trade tensions will be ironed out before long.

“He’s trying to get us better trade deals,” Hoeven said, referring to the president. “The objective is not to have a long-term relief program. The objective is to get access to the markets on a fair basis for our farmers and ranchers.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...farmers-737108

I want 12 BILLION for the WALL!

These farmers are the ones hiring illegal aliens and RIPPING off the US taxpayers!

Let them automate and GIVE them a tax break instead!

Trump plans to give farmers $12 BILLION of taxpayer money.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Trump plans to give farmers $12 BILLION of taxpayer money.

Exactly! and I am guessing most of these are the millionaire farmers, very few of the poor or middle income farms left.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Trump plans to give farmers $12 BILLION of taxpayer money.

These are long-standing programs that we've used from time to time for decades. They're mostly government purchasing programs of the products during these trade tiffs when certain farmers are targeted in retaliatory tariffs until the issues are resolved. Activating these gives our officials leverage in the trade negotiations. A good thing!! Most Americans want these bad trade deals fixed so we need to support the plans and actions needed to achieve it. Or so it seems to me.

The administration has been considering a two-part approach to support farmers' incomes. One part of the plan would provide payments to farmers through the Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage programs, which cover traditional commodities like corn, soybeans and wheat, according to the sources familiar with the plan.

Payments under PLC and ARC are triggered when prices dip below certain levels set by Congress, or farm revenue at the county level comes in below a guaranteed amount, respectively.

Another tool USDA plans to use is its authority under an obscure entity known as the Commodity Credit Corporation to buy up excess supply on the market in an effort to boost domestic prices. The government used this authority in May when USDA announced it would purchase excess cheddar cheese and distribute the product to federal nutrition assistance programs. The dairy industry has suffered in recent years as prices have been driven down by a glut of product on the market.

Another tool USDA plans to use is its authority under an obscure entity known as the Commodity Credit Corporation to buy up excess supply on the market in an effort to boost domestic prices.

So they use taxpayer money to keep prices high for taxpayers?

Originally Posted by jtdc

So they use taxpayer money to keep prices high for taxpayers?

Yes, to protect all the businesses and jobs involved in the food supply during these events. When the government buys cheese, it's not buying it from farmers, it's buying it from the cheese companies. Same with pork and so forth. Then when it's over if we haven't used it in a nutrition program, we can sell it off and get our money back or even make a profit on it.