Is Trump good for American farmers?

American ranchers now know the cost of President Trump’s ill-considered withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in January 2017. The TPP promised US exporters of high-quality beef improved access to the lucrative, highly protected Japanese market. Instead, US beef producers now face discriminatory treatment, which undercuts their position in their top export market.

US ranchers have been hurt in two ways because the United States is not in the TPP. First, their competitors get better access to the Japanese market. Australian producers are charged lower tariffs in the Japanese market by dint of the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement (JAEPA). The JAEPA took effect on January 15, 2015, and provides Australian exporters a large and growing tariff advantage over US producers, who must pay the higher most-favored nation (MFN) rate. Under the JAEPA, Australian beef exporters currently are charged a preferential tariff of 27.2 percent compared with the MFN rate of 38.5 percent. Under TPP, both countries would have faced a Japanese tariff of 27.5 percent—and that tariff would have declined over time to 9 percent. The TPP would have leveled the playing field for US ranchers on day 1!

Second, US exporters are subject to special safeguard measures applied by Japan to blunt import surges; Japan’s EPA partners generally are exempt from such restrictions. Unlike regular safeguard actions that require a finding that imports injure domestic producers, the special protection for farm products is imposed automatically if the growth of imports exceeds a fixed amount. In this case, Japan’s total imports of frozen beef in April-June 2017 (the first quarter of Japan’s fiscal year) increased by (slightly) more than 17 percent from the same period last year (see table 1).

Because of this large increase, Japan imposed on August 1, 2017 special safeguard measures in the form of additional tariffs against frozen beef imports from the United States and other countries without an EPA with Japan. The extra duty above the MFN rate is 11.5 percent and will be applied until the end of Japan’s fiscal year (i.e., through March 2018). During this period, Japanese imports from the United States will pay a 50 percent tariff while those from Australia will pay 27.2 percent.

With those unsustainable debts and dwindling profit margins in mind, more than 75 percent of rural voters in the Farm Belt cast their ballots for Trump in the last presidential election. They cheered Trump’s promise to support the Renewable Fuel Standard (which props up the ethanol industry), his pledge to eliminate estate taxes on inherited farmland and roll back regulations on farm runoff, and, most of all, they liked his tough talk on trade policy. Roughly one-third of their combined corn and soybean harvest is shipped overseas, so farmers said they were heartened by Trump’s reputation as a hard-nosed negotiator, a businessman renowned for his skill at the art of the deal, who could strong-arm trading partners into paying higher prices for American commodity grains. Instead, Trump is threatening to withdraw entirely from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — a move that farm lobbying organizations, market analysts and trade experts universally agree would be disastrous for farmers.

Despite all this, Iowan farmers remain worried about what the federal government has in mind for them. “We cannot do this on our own with bilateral deals,” says Debi Durham of the Iowa Economic Development Authority, who regrets America pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact that was pushed by Barack Obama. Governor Reynolds says diplomatically that Mr Trump’s and Mr Xi’s 100-day plan for trade talks, agreed in April in Florida, was a good start. Having conquered Mr Xi with “Iowa nice”, the state government hopes that a relationship fostered over 30 years will survive what comes next. And if that fails, the Friendship Farm will at least be a curious spectacle for China’s city-dwellers.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:No.

A racist, bigoted sexual predator is not good for anyone.

Turtleneck wrote:
Farmers voted heavily for Trump. But his trade policies are terrible for them.

With those unsustainable debts and dwindling profit margins in mind, more than 75 percent of rural voters in the Farm Belt cast their ballots for Trump in the last presidential election. They cheered Trump’s promise to support the Renewable Fuel Standard (which props up the ethanol industry), his pledge to eliminate estate taxes on inherited farmland and roll back regulations on farm runoff, and, most of all, they liked his tough talk on trade policy. Roughly one-third of their combined corn and soybean harvest is shipped overseas, so farmers said they were heartened by Trump’s reputation as a hard-nosed negotiator, a businessman renowned for his skill at the art of the deal, who could strong-arm trading partners into paying higher prices for American commodity grains. Instead, Trump is threatening to withdraw entirely from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — a move that farm lobbying organizations, market analysts and trade experts universally agree would be disastrous for farmers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/10/24/farmers-voted-heavily-for-trump-but-his-trade-policies-are-terrible-for-them/?utm_term=.5b8eee761a86

Robert J Sakimano wrote:On the upside, the coal industry is going to be booming!

GRR Spartan wrote:No claims of Fake News yet?

GRR Spartan wrote:Goose has no comeback so it’s more insult the poster time..