Farmers for Free Trade React to Tariff War Escalation

More tariffs have officially gone into effect between China and the U.S, worth $34 billion, and Farmers for Free Trade says it’s hitting producers directly in the pocketbook.  Brian Kuehl is the group’s Executive Director, and he said the evidence of pain from a now multi-front trade war is multiplying every day.

“From China canceling soybean orders, to cheese exports to Mexico plummeting, to farm equipment prices rising, the stories of financial loss are now rolling in from across America,” he says. “Today’s actions will only create more nightmare stories of farmers’ livelihoods being squeezed.”

One of those farmers is Brent Bible, a soybean and corn farmer from Indiana, who says these actions are a direct financial hit.

“This is money out of my pocket,” Bible says, “and these tariffs could mean the difference between a profit and a loss for an entire year’s worth of work out in the field. That’s only in the near term. Over the long haul, producers are deeply concerned that China will continue to replace American soy with that of our competitors.”

Bible adds that these losses shouldn’t be made up by government programs, saying that “frustration is growing quickly in the heartland and we need this solved now.”

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