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U.S. farmers still need aid despite new U.S.-China Trade framework, expert says

The co-director of the Ag and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M says U.S. farmers still need federal assistance despite last week’s new trade framework between the U.S. and China.

Bart Fischer says the agreement is a positive step in reducing trade uncertainty, but it doesn’t address high input costs.

“We’re still dealing with the carryover effects from inflation over the last four to five years.”

Fischer says he’s expecting the Trump administration and Congress to continue their discussions on both economic and trade assistance as separate, but related issues.

“The need for trade assistance, I think, is largely going to depend on how the market ultimately ends up responding and how that translates into, you know, to price improvement.”

He says the government shutdown has complicated the situation.

“I think we’re, we’re all a little bit flat footed with the government shutdown. You know without those signals coming from the USDA’s WASDE to know exactly where we are on marketing your average price projections for example, it’s a little hard to know exactly which direction they’re going to go.”

The USDA recently said it would be releasing the November supply and demand report, amid the shutdown. Fischer says USDA likely wants to be prepared when it’s time to pull the trigger on any possible ad-hoc assistance.

Recent Food and Ag Policy Center data says the current farm economy is among the toughest in more than 40 years. Fischer says that’s still the case with the farm program improvements included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is expected to deliver relief in fall 2026.