US farmers in Washington to seek end of the trade war with China
- The US president’s trade policies have sent agricultural exports plunging, exacerbating already difficult economic conditions facing farmers
- Average farm income has fallen to near 15-year lows under Trump
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2185222/us-farmers-washington-seek-end-trade-war-china
President Donald Trump’s trade war is magnifying some of the toughest farm conditions since the crisis that bankrupted thousands of farmers in the 1980s – and threatening a constituency crucial to his reelection hopes.
The president’s trade policies have sent US agricultural exports plunging, exacerbating already difficult economic conditions facing farmers. Average farm income has fallen to near 15-year lows under Trump, and in some areas of the country, farm bankruptcies are soaring.
The fate of the farm economy and rural America is fused to Trump’s political future. Farmers and ranchers make up the heart of his base, and their support in battleground Midwestern states like Iowa and Wisconsin could help determine the 2020 presidential election.
Although Trump’s standing with those groups generally remains strong, cracks are starting to show.
Hundreds of farmers and business representatives are in Washington this week to pressure lawmakers and the Trump administration to end the trade war by describing the hardships they are facing.
“A lot of farmers are going to give the president the benefit of the doubt, and have to date. But the longer the trade war goes on, the more that dynamic changes,” said Brian Kuehl, executive director of Farmers for Free Trade, one of the groups organising the fly-in.
There are signs that agriculture’s compounding challenges are already pushing some producers over the edge – at least in certain regions and sectors.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis warned in November of rising Chapter 12 bankruptcies in the region, writing that the strain of low commodity prices “is starting to show up not just in bottom line profitability, but in simple viability”. The increase was driven by woes in Wisconsin’s dairy sector, which shrank by about 1,200 operations, or 13 per cent, from 2016 to October 2018.
...
But there are other parallels. Farm debt is nearing the record levels set in the ’80s, accounting for inflation, according to USDA statistics, and farm expenses are rising. Fertiliser and equipment have become costlier, due partly to Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminium and certain chemicals made in China.