News

Vilsack warns continued tariffs could cause lasting damage to U.S. ag trade relationships

A former ag secretary at the USDA says he’s concerned the continued tariffs will cause long-term damage to trading relationships and demand for U.S. agriculture

Tom Vilsack tells Brownfield “if you lose a customer to a Brazil, Argentina or some other country, how do you get that customer back once the retaliatory tariffs have been worked out?”

Vilsack says trade agreements might be a way to get trading partners like China back, but the U.S. has tried that before. However, “they didn’t live up to their responsibilities.”

Vilsack says the arrangements lack an enforcement mechanism.

“It’s not like a full-scale trade agreement where you have like, through the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a process you can go through to compel and force a different course of action for trading partners.”

Vilsack says good faith negotiations aren’t always reliable.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday the phase one trade deal with China was good for purchase commitments of ag products, but no one in the Biden administration enforced the trade deal.

“It’s hard to go back after four years of nobody calling them,” he said. “I used to call them every two weeks, I’d say, I appreciate it, and oftentimes I’d say, thank you very much you’re totally adhering to the agreement. But we had an agreement they’d buy $50 billion worth of our product, mostly farm product(s).”

The U.S. and China are scheduled to meet again to talk trade at the end of October and Trump says soybeans will be discussed.