Ag groups pleased with fertilizer tariff decision

Jul 20, 2022

The International Trade Commission voted not to place tariffs on some UAN for fertilizer

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Organizations representing U.S. farmers are pleased with a recent decision that helps keep money in farmers’ pockets.

On July 18, the International Trade Commission (ITC) voted unanimously against placing anti-dumping tariffs on urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) solutions from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago.

Had the ITC voted the other way, U.S. farmers would’ve had to pay additional costs for fertilizer originating in those countries.

Farmers are already paying more for inputs and more price increases would challenge them further.

“Skyrocketing supply costs are already forcing some farmers into the red. The cost of fertilizer increased more than 60% from 2021 to 2022 and that’s not sustainable,” Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a statement. “We appreciate the commission’s recognition that adding unnecessary import costs would have made it difficult for farmers to access an affordable supply of this crucial nutrient at a time when America’s farmers are being called on to meet growing demand here at home and abroad.”

“This comes as a welcome relief,” National Corn Growers Association President Chris Edgington said in a statement. “We have been sounding the alarms and telling the ITC commissioners that tariffs will drive up input prices to even more unaffordable levels for farmers and cripple our supply. I am so glad they listened.”

The ITC’s ruling isn’t viewed as a unanimous victory for all those in the ag sector.

In June 2021, CF Industries filed a petition with the ITC requesting it place tariffs on UAN from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago “due to the harm the domestic UAN industry has experienced from dumped and unfairly subsidized UAN important from Russia and Trinidad.”

CF Industries wanted the tariffs to help restore fairness in the fertilizer industry and ensure American farmers have a reliable source of fertilizers.

In June 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce found UAN imports from Russia are sold at less than fair value at rates ranging from 8.16 percent to 122.93 percent.

And UAN imports from Trinidad were dumped at a rate of 111.71 percent.

The ITC’s decision will hurt the U.S. fertilizer sector, said Tony Will, president and CEO of CF Industries.

“Unfortunately, this outcome will perpetuate an unlevel playing field for a domestic industry that has invested billions of dollars in the U.S. to ensure American farmers have a reliable source of UAN fertilizer,” he said in a statement.

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”