The president says the tariffs will boost American manufacturing and make the country wealthy, but many expect farmers to suffer losses and food prices to rise.
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The president says the tariffs will boost American manufacturing and make the country wealthy, but many expect farmers to suffer losses and food prices to rise.
April 2, 2025
May 29, 2025 Update: Yesterday, a federal panel of judges found that most of Trump’s tariffs, including the 10 percent baseline imposed on all countries, are illegal. However, the administration is already petitioning the court to continue imposing the tariffs, so uncertainty abounds.
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April 9, 2025 Update: President Trump announced he is pausing the higher, country-specific tariffs announced on April 2 for 90 days. The universal 10 percent tariff is still in effect. China, which has since retaliated with higher tariffs and imposed a ban on imports from some American chicken and sorghum companies it attributes to contamination, will now face a 125 percent tariff. European Union member states also voted to impose tariffs on American goods including corn and soybeans.
April 2, 2025 — At an event in the White House Rose Garden today, President Trump announced a 10 percent baseline tariff on imports from all countries and higher retaliatory tariffs on some of the United States’ most important agricultural trade partners.
Trump will levy tariffs of 34 percent against China and 20 percent against the European Union. Mexico and Canada will be exempt from the new tariffs, but Trump has already put in place existing tariffs against those countries. A long list of other food and farm trade partners are subject to higher tariffs as well; Trump has set each country’s tariffs at about half the rate of its existing tariffs on U.S. goods.
“We have to take care of our people, and we’re going to take care of our people first,” Trump said, pitching the idea that the tariffs will encourage more companies to produce and sell goods within the U.S., boosting American manufacturing. He said his plan has already sparked $6 trillion in new investments in the U.S,, and the White House put out a fact sheet on the success of the tariffs he implemented during his first term. “It’s going to be fantastic for the workers. It’s going to be fantastic for everyone,” he said.
But economists say that the tariffs will cause food prices to rise and negatively impact Americans struggling to feed their families, not to mention small businesses like independent grocers and restaurants. Farmers and others across the food system are also incredibly worried about profound economic consequences. Last time around, the tariffs caused farmers who export their crops to lose billions of dollars; Trump’s USDA bailed them out with close to $30 billion in taxpayer funds.
“By declaring a worldwide trade war, the administration is hurting American farmers, workers and consumers. Increasing input costs, shutting farmers out of export markets and causing middle-class families to pay more at the grocery store is not a winning strategy,” said Representative Angie Craig (D-Minnesota), the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, in a statement.
Brooke Rollins, who sat directly in front of Trump in the audience, has already hinted that the administration will again issue payments to commodity farmers if they are hurt by the tariffs. Rollins also made two announcements related to boosting trade for farmers over the past week. She announced she’ll travel to Vietnam, Japan, India, Peru, Brazil, and the United Kingdom this year to boost agricultural trade, and that the USDA is making about $300 million available for programs intended to expand international markets for farm products. (Link to this post.)
July 30, 2025
From Oklahoma to D.C., a food activist works to ensure that communities can protect their food systems and their future.
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