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Those tariffs could also disrupt a global marketplace that has shaped American agriculture for generations. As Frank Morris of member station KCUR reports, some farmers are worried the trade barriers will compound hard times on the farm.
FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: Most farmers backed Trump in the last election, and Trump says the sweeping tariffs announced yesterday are going to help them out.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We're also standing up for our great farmers and ranchers who are brutalized by nations all over the world. Brutalized.
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MORRIS: Some countries have protected their farmers with trade barriers, largely because American farmers are more efficient. It's hard to beat them in open competition. And since they grow way more food than Americans can eat, exports are absolutely vital. Farmers are also big spenders, laying out billions of dollars on heavy machinery, seed and fertilizer every year. And that makes farmers doubly vulnerable to tariffs.
VANCE EHMKE: These tariffs are just absolutely bad news.
MORRIS: Vance Ehmke farms land his family homesteaded in western Kansas.
EHMKE: They cause the prices for everything that we buy to go up and the price for everything that we sell to go down. I mean, it is being economically drawn and quartered.
MORRIS: Lots of farmers say they were stretched to the breaking point before the tariffs took hold. The cost of farm supplies has skyrocketed, but commodity prices are low. Many farmers are losing money, and National Corn Growers Association president Kenneth Hartman says they're facing another bad year.
KENNETH HARTMAN: '24 was tough. You know, '25 could be a lot worse, the way things are looking right now when it comes to the economy.
MORRIS: Hartman says Trump's new tariffs could break lucrative trade relationships with steady customers like Japan, which has just been slapped with a 24% tariff.
HARTMAN: If we get tariffs for too long, these other countries are going to basically start talking to Brazil and Argentina, and they can take a lot of our markets away. And, you know, when you lose a market, it's hard to get them back.
MORRIS: Hartman is hoping Trump will use the tariffs to leverage more favorable trade deals for American farmers or sign legislation allowing more ethanol and gasoline to boost domestic consumption or at least come to the rescue. In the last trade war, Trump's USDA gave farmers $23 billion to compensate for their losses. Many farmers believe the administration will help again this time, but few think the government checks will cover what they could have made selling grain on the open market.
For NPR News, I'm Frank Morris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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