Posted on 03/10/2018 12:27:17 PM PST by reaganaut1
MAPLE PARK, Ill. — Snow and sleet were falling on Eldon Gould’s 500 acres this week, but he was already looking ahead to planting season; depending on ground conditions and the temperature, that could be just several weeks away.
But now the prospect of steel and aluminum tariffs was adding to the list of worries and uncertainties that come with every corn and soybean season.
“It’s the retaliation risk,” Mr. Gould said from his kitchen table in Maple Park, in a region of northern Illinois where farmland runs on for miles.
“The world’s already awash in grain,” Mr. Gould said, “and then if you lose a key customer — it’s big. They’re going to go somewhere else to buy it.”
Continue reading the main story That’s a tangible threat throughout the Midwest, which accounts for roughly half the nation’s agricultural output, a prime target in any tit-for-tat response to the tariffs announced by President Trump. Unlike the rest of the economy, farms deliver a trade surplus for the United States, and a trade war could put barriers around lucrative markets.
Mr. Gould, 76, is a longtime Republican, and like large numbers of farmers, he voted for Mr. Trump. But several of the president’s policy positions, like curtailing crop insurance, have run counter to agricultural interests — and perhaps none more than trade.
The country’s overall trade deficit continues to irritate Mr. Trump. Last year, he withdrew from the nascent Trans-Pacific Partnership, challenged the authority of the World Trade Organization, and insisted on rewriting the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada — a pact that has helped lift American farmers’ fortunes at a time when low prices have eaten into their incomes.
In January, the president imposed tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“The NY Times ventures into flyover country. Their concern is heartwarming.”
My very first thought, too!
A pox on them!
Fake news
You #nevertrumpers sure love the NYT.
I still love Trump and would vote many more times for him.
Heh, choke on it!
All hype, none of it is real. California Feeds the Entire Country and the USA feeds the rest of the World. Without the USA the world will starve
Fake news. We sell those food products to countries that don’t want their sources of those supplies to be embargoed—ever. And as for soybeans? Cover crops, plastics shops, cooking oil and fuel. They can be used here.
i guess this is creepy but it is certainly no creepier than Jeb Bush keeping a plastic turtle in his pocket to give him inspiration during his doomed 2016 campaign.
Yep - and the farmer they decided to use says the “world is awash in grain”, which might make one beg to ask why we need to either keep at full production or even pay them well to not produce.
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