(The Center Square) \u2013 Federal tariffs pose challenges now for farmers in Pennsylvania and across the nation, while a long-term trend puts the industry at risk, according to the state’s top agricultural voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve had this pendulum swing back and forth on the president’s and the administration’s approach to the international community, I’ll say,\u201d said Russell Redding<\/a>, the state\u2019s Secretary of Agriculture. \u201cAnd that has been particularly challenging of figuring out relationships, whether that’s with Canada or Mexico or the USMCA environment, or if it’s some of our other partners: 130-some partners around the country, around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Redding\u2019s comments were made on Tuesday in response to a question at a town hall hosted during Penn State\u2019s annual Ag Progress Days<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Redding<\/a>, the longest serving agriculture secretary in the state\u2019s history, noted that Pennsylvania exports roughly $4 billion worth of agricultural exports, citing the hardwoods industry as the largest in the nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although he didn\u2019t reference a specific dollar amount, he said the implications of these tariffs are \u201cserious\u201d for that industry and others in the agriculture space.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI can’t give a dollar figure on that, but serious implications both in trade and the interruption of trade,\u201d Redding said. \u201cI think, and probably more important, is sort of the potential long-term implications of the trade relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n During Trump\u2019s second term, he has enacted tariffs that have swept across the economy, agriculture included.<\/p>\n The Trump administration<\/a> has argued that its strategy is \u201cstrengthening farm income, supporting rural jobs, and helping reduce the agricultural trade deficit by restoring fair, reciprocal trade relationships around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n However, farmers in Pennsylvania<\/a> and beyond<\/a> have expressed concern about rising costs and pin part of the blame on tariffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Redding said that he thinks there\u2019s an \u201cunsettled period\u201d that the nation is currently working through as a result of these tariffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ve seen very direct implications with trade, the dollars of trade, the value of those trades, and I think that’s going to continue for some time,\u201d Redding said.<\/p>\n In response to the Trump administration enacting reciprocal tariffs on trading partners, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau noted how \u201cagriculture relies on robust trade agreements.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPennsylvania Farm Bureau (PFB) thanks the Trump Administration for promoting America\u2019s agricultural goods by prioritizing new and existing trade agreements,\u201d said then-PA Farm Bureau President Chris Hoffman<\/a>. \u201cAt the same time though, we do have concerns on the impact increased tariffs would have on farms who are struggling to stay afloat given recent natural disasters and high input costs among other factors.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOver 20% of U.S. agricultural goods are exported, so retaliatory tariffs do pose a threat to farmer\u2019s profits. While we understand and appreciate the goal of these tariffs bolstering American-grown products, these tariffs will inevitably further drive-up input costs, which will make agricultural products more expensive globally,\u201d he continued. \u201cUnfortunately, farmers are going to experience short-term competitive disadvantages, but these tariffs may also cause long-term impacts regarding market share losses.\u201d<\/p>\n The bureau said that they appreciated Trump\u2019s \u201cambitious attitude to take action regarding\u201d trade agreements with other countries, but urged them to \u201cpursue alternative strategies, rather than tariffs, to protect farmers from retaliation.\u201d<\/p>\n The agriculture industry is not the only one impacted by tariffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gov. Josh Shapiro sharply criticized the Trump administration in a visit to Canada<\/a> earlier this year, claiming tariffs are negatively impacting both the United States and our neighbor to the north.\u00a0<\/p>\n Republican elected officials in Pennsylvania<\/a> have largely backed Trump\u2019s tariff policies, believing that they are aimed at promoting American-made products.<\/p>\n When highlighting international trade, Redding sounded the alarm of how Brazil<\/a>, which he described as a competitor, was emerging with production of corn and soybeans.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey’re bringing onboard the equivalent of half of the acres in the state of Illinois every year in production, corn and soybeans,\u201d Redding said. \u201cThat’s serious, right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cChina has shifted a lot of their purchase of corn and soybeans to Brazil,\u201d he continued. \u201cWhat’s the long term implication of that? I don’t know, but it’s not good, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Redding added \u201cthat’s a turn where we had a very dominant market for 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n While Redding emphasized the importance of the nation reassuring trading partners abroad, he also detailed the role the state can play in engaging with others to promote the agricultural industry.<\/p>\n \u201cThat doesn’t mean that there’s not an opportunity and a need to have the subnational relationships and the engagement between state and nations, and we have seen that time and again,\u201d Redding said. \u201cWe’ve honored every request that we get from ambassadors who come, trade delegations that come, and they come for a lot of reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n Polling in Pennsylvania shows that Trump\u2019s tariff policies are not popular.\u00a0<\/p>\n The May edition of the PennLive\/Bravo Group Morning Scrapple poll<\/a> showed that 71% of Pennsylvanians believe tariffs are hurting them, an 11-point increase from April.<\/p>\n While the president\u2019s polling is weak with Pennsylvanians on the issue, rural voters seem to have mixed feelings on his job performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n CNBC<\/a> noted that a Fox News poll<\/a> released in July showed that 44% of rural Americans approve of Trump, which is a 14% decrease from the same poll taken in June.<\/p>\n However, that\u2019s still higher than Trump\u2019s 40% approval rating<\/a> among voters across the country, according to the CNBC All-America Economic Survey, released July 17, but down from 60% approval among rural voters at the start of his second term.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n In the conversation about tariffs and trade, Redding said he thinks it\u2019s a \u201cwake-up call\u201d for everyone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have built these very complicated trade systems on the ability to share our abundance, right,\u201d Redding said. \u201cWe need those markets.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey’re desperately part of, critically part of, the economic value stream and the income streams for American agriculture, and we’ve seen those disruptions,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd I think we have to think about what we can do domestically, and that’s certainly been an administration’s priority to look: can you onshore? Can you do more here? That’s important, but just in sheer volumes, we need to make sure that we can stay in these international marketplaces at least where we are and hopefully grow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013 Federal tariffs pose challenges now for farmers in Pennsylvania and across the nation, while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2470,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-265451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-agriculture","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}