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Consider trade impacts of the upcoming election
An ag economist says there could be significant shifts in trade policy following the November election.
Chad Hart with Iowa State University says both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates seem to be comfortable with tariffs. The Trump administration has campaigned on expanding tariffs, which Hart says could possibly create another trade war.
“The last one was tough, but there was also the case of support offered by the Trump administration at that time to alleviate some of that pain.”
He says the Harris administration is expected to maintain the status quo.
“We can look back on what the Biden-Harris administration has done with tariffs. They’ve been selective in adding any, but they haven’t necessarily reduced any either.”
Hart says many in the farm community are caught in an in-between and will have to decide if they can endure another possible trade war.
“President Trump’s policies have led to pain in the past for agriculture and could likely lead to more pain in the future. Then, the question becomes do you get enough benefit in other areas and do you get enough benefit from whatever support might be provided after the fact?”
He says less than two weeks away from the election there’s still a lot of uncertainty about how each candidate will impact U.S. agriculture, but trade is an important factor to consider.
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