U.S. Agriculture Tariffs

Trump Plans to Ease Trade Tensions by Reducing Tariffs On Chinese Goods

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 21:38:45 GMT

Comments President Donald Trump made at a White House press briefing on Tuesday have signaled the U.S. trade war with China is about to de-escalate.

The 145% import tax rate imposed on Chinese goods will “come down substantially, but it won’t be a zero,” Trump said.

“I don’t know if we can call what President Trump did on China a U-turn, but some people are calling it that,” AgriTalk Host Chip Flory said on Wednesday. He asked guests what their level of support is for what the Trump administration is doing on trade currently.

“I think he’s doing what needed to be done,” said Scott McGregor a cattleman and grain producer from northeast Iowa, near Nashua.

McGregor said he wants to see a level playing field for the U.S. in its trade efforts and negotiations with China.

“China needs to be a trade partner, not just a trading destination. That’s a lot of it,” McGregor said. Get the complete AgriTalk discussion here .

Financial Losses In The U.S. Beef Industry

Beef producers are reported to be “losing up to $165 per head on cattle currently, due to the absence of Chinese competition for high-value cuts like short rib and chuck. That’s a $4 billion annual blow to the U.S. beef sector…,” reported The Scottish Farmer last week.

McGregor said he would like to see the U.S. open up new markets for its beef and grain products to increase opportunities and minimize potential risks from future tariffs.

“China is not our only destination for our ag products, right? We need to expand our horizons as much as we can,” McGregor said.

When U.S. cattlemen start talking about market opportunities, Flory said they often turn their focus on Australia. The U.S. imports about $3-billion worth of beef from Australia a year.

“Australia doesn’t import any beef from the U.S., and there’s cattlemen here that would like to see that fixed,” Flory said. “But the issue is, there’s only, what, 30 million people in Australia?”

Furthermore, Australia has a lot of beef to export that the U.S. needs for use in hamburger, McGregor said.

“I know people don’t want us to import it, but Nellie bar the door if we couldn’t import beef from Australia for grinding,” he said. “Our demand is so huge here in the United States that we have got to import it. It has to meet all the specs that our beef does for importation, and it isn’t like we’re just willy-nilly importing some beef. We need it bad. And yes, it’d be great if they took some of our beef, but they don’t have the population.”

China has turned its attention and dollars to accessing more Australian beef, as well. According to Meat and Livestock Australia, Australian grain-fed beef exports to China surged almost 40% in February and March year-on-year, according to The Scottish Farmer article.

“Australian beef finds itself in a rare sweet spot – a prime cut of opportunity in a world of lean margins,” the article said.

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Beef Industry Sees Some Silver Linings As Reciprocal Tariffs Go Into Effect

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 15:07:02 GMT

President Donald Trump unveiled a series of tariffs on Wednesday afternoon during his “Make America Wealthy Again” event in the White House Rose Garden.

Using his International Emergency Economic Powers Act authority, he announced the U.S. will impose a 10% tariff on all countries that will take effect April 5, 2025, at 12:01 a.m. EDT.

Trump will also impose an individualized reciprocal higher tariff on the countries with which the U.S. has the largest trade deficits to take effect April 9, 2025, at 12:01 a.m. EDT. All other countries will continue to be subject to the original 10% tariff baseline.

Livestock Industry Weighs In On Announcement

During the event, which was broadcast live across the U.S. and abroad, Trump held up a chart showing specific countries in line for what he described as reciprocal tariffs.

“ We will charge them approximately half of what they are — and have been — charging us,” he said. “So, the tariffs will not be a full reciprocal. I could have done that, I guess, but it would have been tough for a lot of countries.”

Joe Schuele, U.S. Meat Export Federation senior vice president of communications, responding to the announcement in a prepared statement, said the president’s executive order provides more clarity on the administration’s approach to reciprocal tariffs.

“USMEF’s main concern is obviously how our trading partners will react,” Schuele said. “We are hopeful that they will focus on eliminating barriers to trade rather than imposing restrictive countermeasures.”

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane also issued a statement after attending President Donald J. Trump’s announcement at the White House.

“For too long, America’s family farmers and ranchers have been mistreated by certain trading partners around the world,” Lane said. “President Trump is taking action to address numerous trade barriers that prevent consumers overseas from enjoying high-quality, wholesome American beef.

“NCBA will continue engaging with the White House to ensure fair treatment for America’s cattle producers around the world and optimize opportunities for exports abroad,” Lane added.

A partial list of the countries Trump called out and specific tariff percentages to be imposed include:

China - 34%
European Union - 20%
Vietnam - 46%
Taiwan - 32%
Japan - 24%
India - 26%
South Korea - 25%
Thailand - 36%
Switzerland - 31%
Indonesia - 32%

Reciprocal tariffs laid out by President Trump.
(The White House )

Some Trade Partners Inhibit U.S. Opportunity

A recent article in Drovers, Cattle and Hog Markets See Opposite Impact of Tariffs, shows that tariffs on U.S. beef and cattle imports can have a net effect of tightening supplies, and that’s price positive.

Numerous countries are imposing tariff and non-tariff trade barriers on American beef that inhibit opportunities to export product, added NCBA’s Lane who offered five examples:

Australia has sold roughly $29 billion of beef to American consumers. Meanwhile, the U.S. has not been able to sell $1 of fresh U.S. beef in Australia due to non-scientific barriers, Lane said.
Vietnam places a 30% tariff on U.S. beef while Australian beef faces no such tariff.
Thailand places a 50% tariff on U.S. beef.
Brazil and Paraguay have a history of dangerous foot-and-mouth disease, but despite overwhelming evidence of their animal health risk, the Biden administration continued to allow U.S. market access to Brazil and Paraguay.
The European Union places numerous non-scientific “Green Deal” restrictions on American beef, limiting market opportunities.

Grain Growers Brace For More Financial Pain

Potentially caught in the middle of the new tariff battles are those farmers who produce cattle and grain. That describes Chase Dewitz, who shared his perspective on AgriTalk. His family operation includes more than 34,000 acres of pasture, row crops, 1,500 head of beef cows and a feedlot. His current concerns revolve around grain exports.

“I think there’s going to be some pain here for a while, and the biggest thing is these export markets. We have handed China to Brazil, and we’re just pushing them away more and more, and we’ve allowed this to happen,” said Dewitz, who is based in central North Dakota, near Steele.

During the 2018 trade war with China, U.S. agriculture experienced more than $27 billion in losses, according to the American Soybean Association. The association says the U.S. has yet to fully recover its former market share of soybean exports to China, the world’s No. 1 buyer of the commodity .

“The policies of the last 30, 40, 50 years have just pushed this thing so far,” Dewitz said. “And without some major pain, I don’t know how you reset that.”

Other grain growers expressed similar nervousness about tariffs and declining optimism in the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer for March. Forty-three percent of the farmers surveyed cited shifting trade policy as the No. 1 driver of their negative outlook.

In addition, farmers were pessimistic about the outlook for the future of ag export markets, particularly for grain. Five-year expectations for U.S. exports reached an all-time low for the survey, according to James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture.

A recent AgWeb poll that found more than half of farmers don’t support Trump’s use of tariffs .

Dewitz said U.S. farmers want changes that will bring about fairer trade agreements but no one likes financial pain.

“Everyone says, ‘this needs to be fixed,’ and then on the backside they say, ‘as long as it doesn’t affect me,’” he said. “Well, it’s going to affect everybody.”

Listen to the full conversation with farmers and producers, including Dewitz, on “AgriTalk” here: Farmer Forum - AgriTalk

Your next read: Mexico’s President Says the Country Won’t Retaliate with More Reciprocal Tariffs on U.S. Products

Canada, Mexico Hit Back with Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. Imports

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 12:39:14 GMT

In response to President Donald Trump’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods , Canada announced its own 25% tariffs on $155 billion worth of U.S. imports. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also announced its own retaliatory measures to Trump’s 25% tariffs, but no specifics were unveiled.

Canada Strikes Back
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that the tariffs will roll out in two phases, starting Feb. 4 on $30 bil. targeting American products such as alcohol, produce, household goods, and industrial materials, the same day the American tariffs are set to begin.

The tariffs on the other $125 billion worth of goods will come in 21 days, to allow impacted Canadian companies to adjust their supply chains. Trudeau emphasized that Canada’s response would be “strong but appropriate,” while also considering non-tariff measures like restrictions on critical minerals.

The move has drawn mixed reactions within Canada, with provincial leaders urging strategic countermeasures while ensuring minimal harm to the domestic economy. Meanwhile, the White House justifies the tariffs as a measure against drug trafficking and illegal border crossings, further straining trade relations between the two countries.

American items that Canadians tariffs will be applied to include:

Beer, wine, and bourbon
Fruits and fruit juices including orange juice, as well as vegetables
Perfume, clothing, and shoes
Major consumer products such as household appliances and furniture
Sports equipment
Other materials such as lumber and plastics

The government of Canada says a more detailed list of impacted products will be released soon.

More Tariffs Coming
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said on Jan. 31 that Canada’s retaliatory tariffs would be coming in rounds. “There would be a first round of measures, second round of measures, and a third round of measures,” Joly said at a press conference in Washington. “And we’ll keep ourselves also some leverage.”

When asked if Canada would be shutting off oil exports to the U.S., Trudeau said he will be ensuring Canada’s response will be “equitable” and won’t be damaging to one part of the country more than the others. Energy-rich Alberta has strongly opposed any export tariffs on oil, or for Canada to stop oil exports altogether. Trump said on Jan. 31 that the U.S. tariffs will be lower on Canada’s oil and gas exports, at 10%, while other goods will have a tariff of 25%.

Canada’s trade surplus in merchandise with the U.S. was around $100 billion (US$59 billion) last year, according to a report by TD Bank. If Canadian oil exports to the U.S. are removed from the figure, the “scales tip to America’s favor,” the report says, meaning the United States would have a $60 billion (US$41 billion) trade surplus.

Canada and U.S. Conduct Two-way Trade Worth $1.3T Every Year

According to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, 2.3 million Canadian jobs are supported by exports to the U.S., and 1.4 million American jobs are supported by exports to Canada. A Bank of Canada analysis says that under a mutual 25% tariffs scenario, Canada’s GDP would take a 2.4% hit.

Mexico Announces Plans for Retaliation
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced its own retaliatory measures to Trump’s 25% tariffs, but no specifics were unveiled. Sheinbaum said she had told her economy minister “to implement Plan B” which she said “includes tariff and non-tariff measures” though it was not clear what those measures were exactly.

China Reacts
China’s Ministry of Commerce denounced Trump’s tariffs, saying they undermine “the normal economic and trade cooperation” between the U.S. and China.

The ministry said it would challenge the U.S. action at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and take countermeasures “to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests.” The WTO dispute settlement mechanism has been dysfunctional for years amid U.S. opposition to the appointment of new judges.

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Trump Officially Signs Three Executive Orders Imposing 25% Tariffs on Canada and Mexico, 10% Tariffs on China