Trump Expected to Announce Farmer Assistance Program
US President Trump is expected to announce a farmer assistance program for American farmers in the near future, with the total amount possibly reaching 15 billion US dollars. The plan is intended to alleviate the economic difficulties faced by farmers due to the Sino-US trade dispute and after record corn harvests.
This aid will help farmers affected by the Sino-US trade war, especially soybean growers. According to Reuters, citing informed sources, the total amount of aid may be between 10 billion and 15 billion US dollars, and it will serve as a "bridge" for farmers during the harvest season, with more assistance likely to follow.
Although most farmers support Trump, they have also strongly requested government assistance regarding trade agreements, particularly the impact of tariffs on the US soybean market. The Trump administration previously stated that it would use tariff revenues to pay for farmer assistance, but the current difficulty is that, according to legal provisions, the maximum limit for direct payments to farmers is 350 million US dollars, which is clearly insufficient to address the current economic difficulties. In addition, due to the government shutdown, these payments can only be adjusted by Congress, which has increased the difficulty of implementing the plan.
US Treasury Secretary Bensons said last week that the White House plans to announce the farmer assistance program on October 6. However, due to the government shutdown, the funds of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), a subsidiary of the Department of the Treasury, have not been replenished, making it difficult for the government to use this institution to fund the assistance program.
In 2018, during the first term of the Trump administration, the trade war caused heavy losses in the agricultural sector. At that time, the Trump administration provided farmers with over 23 billion US dollars in trade assistance to compensate for the losses suffered by farmers due to tariffs.
Now, although farmers expect to receive government assistance again, the situation is more complicated. Due to the record high global corn production, farmers' profits face the risk of further decline, which has prompted the Trump administration to reconsider its assistance policy.
Trump's farmer assistance program has also triggered backlash from other industries. Many companies have stated that Trump's trade policies and import tariffs have increased their economic burden. For example, an artisanal brewery owner in Wisconsin, Triblest, told the British media BBC that tariffs have increased his production costs by about 40%, forcing him to lay off 20 people and close the brewery. Triblest believes that the Trump administration's assistance to farmers is political maneuvering, and he personally cannot accept this phenomenon of "selective assistance."
Damato of the small business advocacy group "The Coalition of Small Business" also expressed a similar position. She believes that while it is understandable to provide assistance to small farms, she does not think that it should be appropriate to "choose winners and losers" in the trade war, i.e., to assist one industry while ignoring other businesses affected by trade policies.
The Trump administration's trade war strategy still faces major challenges in international trade. Although the Trump administration tried to use tariff revenues to support agriculture, due to the fact that major customers have started to shift their import channels to other countries such as Argentina and Brazil, this has further reduced the market demand for American farmers. In addition, falling corn prices and rising costs of imported fertilizers and agricultural machinery equipment have made the difficulties of the US agricultural sector even more severe.
The UK newspaper The Independent reported that Bensons owns thousands of acres of land in North Dakota used for growing soybeans. He attributed this crisis to former President Biden and told CNBC last week that during the past four years of Democratic rule, opponents did not face "severe punishment" over issues related to agricultural product prices.
Source: rfi
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1845418511974403/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.