New Tariffs Could Hit Pesticides

The pesticide industry is asking the Trump administration to exempt its chemical imports from China from the potential $300 billion in new 25% tariffs the president is threatening to impose next month on Chinese goods.  CropLife America and a specialty chemical trade group filed comments with the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office. Those comments say the tariffs would hit a wide range of products that farmers rely on to do their jobs.

Those products would include glyphosate, 2,4-D, atrazine, and dicamba. The groups say, “Many of the chemicals that would be subject to the proposal are just not available from American sources, and many others are not reasonably available from sources outside of China in the volumes we need and within a useful time period.”

An Agri-Pulse report said Chris Novak, President and CEO of CropLife America, was scheduled to speak on Monday during the USTR’s sixth day of hearings on the list of products targeted for the Section 301 tariffs.

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