Northwest Iowa — Recently President Donald Trump announced a series of tariffs that would be placed on products imported into the United States from China. A few days later, the Chinese responded with the announcement of several tarrifs of their own.
4th District Iowa Congressman Steve King says he’s worried that the escalation of the tit-for-tat tarrif retaliations could accelerate into a full-blown trade war.
King says each country needs the products of the other, and that now the situation has become a political fight.
Congressman King recalled the devastating affect of the 1980 Grain Embargo to the Soviet Union, and says it took a decade for the American economy to rebound.
Meanwhile, Iowa Farm Bureau President Craig Hill, and former President of both the Iowa Pork Producers, and National Pork Producers Council, agree with King, that the impact of the tarrifs will be felt in the agriculture sector for years to come.
Weber says young farmers are most vulnerable, financially, because they’ve borrowed money to get started in the business. Steel prices have already increased costs for farmers buying grain bins or putting up hog confinements.
Both Weber and Hill say President Trump is still popular here in farm country, partly due to regulatory decisions from the Trump Administration. The Iowa Farm Bureau’s president, though, warns “some minds may be changed” if this “cascade” of trade sanctions “gets completely out of control.”
