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EU, other countries may reassess U.S. ag agreements after tariff ruling

An ag economist says he’s watching how countries respond now that the U.S. Supreme Court has removed President Trump’s ability to issue broad tariffs with emergency powers.

Ben Brown with University of Missouri Extension says no longer having tariffs as negotiating leverage could impact ag purchase commitments in recently announced trade deals.

“Are they still binding? Are countries just going to ignore them now or are they going to want to try and renegotiate their deal now that the landscape has changed?”

He tells Brownfield there have been hints of that happening with the European Union, which reached a deal with the U.S. last July. That deal included preferential market access for U.S. ag goods and continued cooperation on non-tariff trade barriers.

But “here recently, President Trump came out with strong language saying any country that tried to renegotiate these deals due to the change in the landscape would face even higher tariffs than what they currently do.”

Tariffs remain part of President Trump’s trade strategy, and there are other ways to impose those taxes. Brown says instead of issuing tariffs country by country, Trump can go product by product.

“For instance, if it’s found countries around the world are unfairly dumping cheap product onto the market and that’s negatively impacting domestic producers in the U.S., there’s an investigation period for that. And then, you can slap tariffs on all countries for that product.”

He says moving forward, the use of tariffs are expected to be slower and more structured.