To Ease Pain of Trump’s Trade War: $12 Billion in Aid for Farmers
In the meantime, the administration has sought ways for the Agriculture Department to help farmers survive the pain of retaliation. As part of the program announced on Tuesday, the department will draw on the financial resources of a program known as the Commodity Credit Corporation, which helps shore up American farmers by buying their crops.
The initiative, which does not authorize any new money and thus not need approval from Congress, was a way for Mr. Trump to tamp down criticism of his trade policies. But it was also an unmistakable signal that the president has no plans to lift his tariffs any time soon, as Farm Belt senators have pleaded.
The plan, first reported by The Washington Post, was met with swift condemnation from Republicans and trade groups, who said that Mr. Trump had devised an expensive and clunky solution to a crisis of Depression-era proportions.
“This trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers and White House’s ‘plan’ is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches,” said Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska. “This administration’s tariffs and bailouts aren’t going to make America great again, they’re just going to make it 1929 again.”
One trade group leader said farmers need contracts, not aid, for stability.
“The best relief for the president’s trade war would be ending the trade war,” said Brian Kuehl, the executive director of trade group Farmers for Free Trade, adding, “This proposed action would only be a short-term attempt at masking the long-term damage caused by tariffs.”
Farm groups say their members have already suffered under lower global commodity prices and natural disasters. The prospect of retaliation has further upended global markets for soybeans, meat and other American farm exports, and farmers are warning that tariffs are costing them valuable foreign contracts that took years to win.
The White House has argued that the tariffs are a negotiating strategy that will allow the president to secure better trade deals, and that the pain the tariffs is inflicting is small in comparison to the potential economic gains.