Supreme Court Ruling Good News For American Farmers, NFU Says

On Friday, the Supreme Court struck down the centerpiece of President Trump’s tariff program. By a 6-3 ruling the high court said the President could not circumvents Congress and use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to issue tariffs.

Rob Larew, President of the National Farmers Union says last week’s decision was a win for American farmers, especially small family farm operations.

He noted not only did the tariffs make it more challenging for farmers to sell their commodities internationally, it increased the costs of inputs needed to make operations successful. Larew added while there are still many questions that need to be answered in Washington D.C., it’s important for farmers to make sure that the White House understands the impact that these tariffs have already had.

Photo: USDA

"And we've been bearing the cost of these for a long time," Larew said. "And I think that there was at least a bit of willingness at the beginning of this trade war to understand that the strategy was to rebalance trade. That's all well and good. Trade's important. But, we've been suffering as a result of these, and it's going to be hard to keep that up.”

Tariffs Impact Farmers Sales Efforts And Inputs

Larew added when it comes to trade disputes and tariffs, most people don’t appreciate that it’s often agriculture that’s impacted the most.

“So, for many farmers, regardless, again, of where they're selling, how, what they're growing, we often get caught being impacted on the price that we're getting for our products and on the side where we're, the cost of producing those products,” Larew said.

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