Farmers left with \u2018swelling grain stores and empty pockets\u2019
\nAgricultural groups press for resumption of trade, not aid
\nCorn Planting As More May Storms To Slow Seeding, Growth
\nPhotographer: Daniel Acker\/Bloomberg
\nPresident Donald Trump\u2019s new $16 billion aid package for farmers raises the federal government\u2019s bill for the trade-war but isn\u2019t easing anyone\u2019s concerns about damage to the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n
Farmers would prefer a resumption of normal trade over government handouts. Several farm-state lawmakers say the payments are too meager. And the money risks distorting agriculture markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do farmers want? They want trade,\u201d said Beth Ford, chief executive officer of Minnesota-based agriculture cooperative Land O\u2019Lakes Inc., before the White House released details of the plan. \u201cNobody wants a payment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democratic Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota derided the administration\u2019s trade assistance in a Bloomberg TV interview as \u201ca little Band-Aid\u201d that \u201cwon\u2019t take care of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration unveiled its latest package Thursday to help farmers hurt by the trade war with China, including $14.5 billion in market facilitation payments directly to producers and $1.4 billion in government purchases to be distributed through school lunch programs and local food banks. That brings to $28 billion the total trade assistance the U.S. has announced for agriculture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will ensure our farmers get the relief they need, and very, very, quickly,\u201d Trump said at the White House on Thursday in announcing the aid. \u201cGood time to be a farmer,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Farmers can expect to receive their first aid payments by July or August, Agriculture Department officials said in a conference call with reporters on Thursday. The final payment is scheduled for the beginning of the 2020 election year.<\/p>\n
American farmers are struggling to remain afloat as the tit-for-tat tariffs spat with China leaves soybeans from last year\u2019s harvest piling up. American farm income dropped 16% last year to $63 billion, about half the level it was as recently as 2013. For Trump, appeasing his rural-voter base has become crucial ahead of 2020 elections.<\/p>\n
Trump referenced the key role farmers and ranchers played in his 2016 election as he announced the aid package, saying they were \u201cpeople that have been with me from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe farmers have been attacked by China\u201d in retaliatory tariffs Beijing has imposed on U.S. agricultural exports, he added.<\/p>\n
John C. Baize, an independent consultant who advises the U.S. Soybean Export Council, said the payments will \u201cunderwrite the farm economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat will help the president in rural America with respect to the 2020 election,\u201d Baize said. \u201cClearly producers of some commodities that are doing fine will get the payments while others that are hurting because of the trade war will get less.”<\/p>\n
Futures for corn, soy and wheat each dropped from earlier gains after the conference call, with Chicago corn declining by as much as 1.9% to $3.87 a bushel. Analysts cited concerns the plan could prompt farmers to plant more even as stockpiles of crops remain huge in part because of the trade war.<\/p>\n
Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, called the latest aid package \u201ca short-term fix for a very long-term problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Farmers left with \u2018swelling grain stores and empty pockets\u2019 Agricultural groups press for resumption of trade, not aid Corn Planting As More May Storms To Slow Seeding, Growth Photographer: Daniel Acker\/Bloomberg President Donald Trump\u2019s new $16 billion aid package for farmers raises the federal government\u2019s bill for the trade-war but isn\u2019t easing anyone\u2019s concerns about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/udaen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/udaen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/udaen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/udaen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/udaen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/udaen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3484,"href":"https:\/\/udaen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3483\/revisions\/3484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/udaen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/udaen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/udaen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}