Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The state has taken the Trump Administration to task again after the Department of Agriculture states a new tariff relief package is less than half of the prior package during his first term.
Due to the last major trade war over Trump’s first term, the USDA‘s Economic Research Service reported that U.S. agricultural export losses exceeded an estimated amount of 27 billion dollars from the middle of 2018 to the end of 2019. Then 23.1 billion dollars in federal assistance put a small band aid on the issue that farmers were facing, but in turn did not restore any of the damage done to international trade relationships that took decades to build. The current aid to row crop farmers, being only 11 billion dollars in funding, is less than half of the aid provided in the previous relief package from Trump’s prior trade war.
In the meantime, China’s alleged agreement to buy 12 million metric tons of soybeans this year still has yet to be shared. On December 5, the USDA confirmed that only 2.25 million tons of soybeans had been purchased by China to date, and the deadline has been extended to the end of February.
In a recent press release, the Director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA), Jerry Costello II, said “Tariffs are crushing farmers again. Financial losses are worse this time around, yet the aid package is fifty percent smaller. We’re seeing repeated devastation with greater losses than Trump. It defies logic.”
Costello also mentions that “The deadline extension is more smoke and mirrors. Even if China made good on the purchase, which is proven unlikely, export totals remain far short of those prior to another manufactured trade war.”
The most concerning fact is that China has not adhered to previous purchase obligations. Reuters reported back in October that “The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office launched a new tariff investigation into China’s apparent failure to comply with the ‘Phase One’ trade deal that was signed with President Trump in 2020, which was set to end his first-term trade war with China.”
Economists state that repeated agriculture packages distort land values, cash rents, equipment purchasing, and also overall decision making.
Costello says this farming crisis is “equivalent to arson.”
