Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday said the farming economy is “not in a good place” as those in the agriculture industry lose sales from trade severances with China and other partner nations.
“Right now, the farm economy is not in a good place. We’re working around the clock,” Rollins said during a Tuesday appearance on Fox Business’s “Making Money with Charles Payne.”
“The president has committed to supporting our farmers, and we’ll have an announcement on that very soon, likely next week,” she added.
Rollins said the “Golden Age” was “around the corner” for farmers. China through July bought 51 percent fewer American soybeans compared with the same period last year, according to The New York Times.
Last week, the Agriculture secretary said the White House was in talks about a “farmers aid package” to provide assistance to those who have experienced financial losses. President Trump also suggested that tariff revenue could be used to support farmers as Republicans in rural regions have raised concerns about their constituents.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) recently slammed the Trump administration’s decision to support Argentina financially while China begins to increase soybean purchases from the South American nation.
“Farmers VERY upset abt Argentina selling soybeans to China right after USA bail out Still ZERO USA soybeans sold to China Meanwhile China is still hitting USA w 20% retaliatory tariff NEED CHINA TRADE DEAL NOW farmers need markets 2boost farm economy,” the Iowa senator wrote in an Thursday post on the social platform X.
He added that farmers should be “top of mind” in negotiations as representatives advocate for deals on behalf of the U.S.
“Why would USA help bail out Argentina while they take American soybean producers’ biggest market???” Grassley wrote in a later post.
The U.S. should “use leverage at every turn to help [the] hurting farm economy,” he added, while noting that family farmers should “be top of mind in negotiations by representatives of USA.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said farmers are dealing with markets that aren’t “open to some of our commodities” while preparing for a “big harvest” in corn and soybean with “no place to go with it” during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“At the end of the day, our farmers are probably going to need some financial assistance this year, and a lot of the revenue coming in off the tariffs is what they would use to provide that,” he added.