By Ryan Hanrahan
Agri-Pulse’s Oliver Ward reported that “President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a new 10% across-the-board tariff in addition to reciprocal duties that will apply to specific trade partners, including China, the European Union, Japan and South Korea. At an event in the Rose Garden Wednesday dubbed, ‘Make America Wealthy Again,’ and with his cabinet in attendance, the president asserted that the U.S. had long pursued a trade policy of ‘economic surrender,’ but said it is now the U.S.’ ‘turn to prosper.'”
“Accordingly, he said all trading partners will face a new 10% duty. But some will also face higher reciprocal duties that the president said reflected both tariff and non-tariff barriers applied to U.S. exports in their markets,” Ward reported. “…China is set to face reciprocal duties of 34%, while the European Union will face a rate of 20%, Japan 24%, India 26% and South Korea 25%, according to a handout the White House gave reporters in the Rose Garden. These duties include the 10% baseline tariff.”
“The new across-the-board tariff will kick in on April 5, according to a White House fact sheet; the country-specific reciprocal duties will take effect on April 9,” Ward reported. “The White House fact sheet says the higher reciprocal tariffs were reserved for countries with which ‘the United States has the largest trade deficits.’ Canada and Mexico, which have already been hit by new tariffs since Trump took office, will not be affected by the new actions, according to the White House fact sheet.”
Trump Says Tariffs are Standing up for Farmers
Progressive Farmer’s Chris Clayton reported that “Trump said his tariff policies are ‘standing up for farmers and ranchers’ who are ‘brutalized by nations.’ He pointed out countries with high tariffs or non-tariff barriers on agriculture will see reciprocal tariffs. He pointed out 250% to 300% tariffs on U.S. dairy products by Canada and suggested Canadian dairy policy should change. USDA reports the U.S. dairy industry last year exported $1.14 billion in products to Canada while Canada’s dairy industry exported $550 million of products to the U.S.”
“‘We don’t like it, and it’s not fair to our farmers and it’s not fair to our country,’ Trump said on the Canadian dairy tariffs,” Clayton reported. “Trump pointed out the U.S. imports $2.8 billion in beef from Australia, but the U.S. exports virtually zero beef to Australia. ‘They don’t want to take any of our beef. They don’t want to take it because they don’t want it to affect their farmers,’ Trump said.
China, EU Preparing Retaliation
Reuters’ Joe Cash, Xiuhao Chen and Liz Lee reported Thursday morning that “China on Thursday urged the United States to immediately cancel its latest tariffs and vowed countermeasures to safeguard its own interests, after President Donald Trump declared sweeping levies on all U.S. trading partners around the world.”
“The U.S. move disregards the balance of interests reached in multilateral trade negotiations over the years and the fact that it has long benefited greatly from international trade, China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement,” Cash, Chen and Lee reported. “‘China firmly opposes this and will take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests,’ the ministry said, as the world’s largest economies look set to spiral deeper into a trade war that stands to upend global supply chains.”
In addition, Reuters’ Philip Blenkinsop and Benoit Van Overstraeten reported that “European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described U.S. President Donald Trump’s universal tariffs as a major blow to the world economy and said the European Union was prepared to respond with countermeasures if talks with Washington failed.”
“Von der Leyen said the EU was already finalising a first package of tariffs on up to 26 billion euros ($28.4 billion) of U.S. goods for mid-April in response to U.S. steel and aluminium tariffs that took effect on March 12,” Blenkinsop and Van Overstraeten reported. “‘And we’re now preparing for further countermeasures to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail,’ von der Leyen said in a statement she read out in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on Thursday, ahead of an EU-Central Asia partnership summit.”
Ag Groups React
Successful Farming’s Noah Rohlfing reported that American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said that “trade is critical to the success of farmers and ranchers across the country. We share the administration’s goal of leveling the playing field with our international partners, but increased tariffs threaten the economic sustainability of farmers who have lost money on most major crops for the past three years.”
National Farmers Union president Rob Larew said that “one thing is certain: American family farmers and ranchers will bear the brunt of this global trade war. The economic strain and uncertainty that farmers face have reached a breaking point. Without meaningful support and a commitment to fair trade policies, we will lose even more family farms, weaken rural economies, and ultimately drive up costs and limit choices for consumers at the grocery store,” according to Rohlfing’s reporting.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, however, praised the move, Rohlfing reported. NCBA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane said that “for too long, America’s family farmers and ranchers have been mistreated by certain trading partners around the world. President Trump is taking action to address numerous trade barriers that prevent consumers overseas from enjoying high-quality, wholesome American beef.”
Source : illinois.edu