Trump Tariffs Still in Play

President Donald J. Trump: "The tariffs will go on — agricultural product coming into America and our farmers starting on April 2, may be a little bit of an adjustment period."

This week, the Trump Administration placed 25 percent tariffs on the country’s number one and two trading partners.

Canada and Mexico, which represent a combined $1.5 trillion dollars in cross border trade, protested the tariffs, arguing that the new duties are unjustified.

Analysts believe the new tariffs are in violation of the USMCA agreement that was negotiated by the first Trump Administration in 2018. 

The reaction from commodity groups was downbeat:

The Iowa Soybean Association wrote: “Mexico and Canada are local and important markets for U.S. farmers. Heightening tensions with these two countries is counterproductive to the needs of Iowa soybean farmers with markets already below the cost of production and going lower.”

The National Corn Growers Association stated:

“We ask President Trump to quickly negotiate agreements with Mexico, Canada and China that will benefit American farmers while addressing issues important to the United States.”

The U.S. Meat Export Federation commented: “USMEF is obviously disappointed that no agreements have yet been reached that would avoid or postpone tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, as well as the tariff increase on goods from China.”

Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on $100 billion worth of imported goods from the United States that will go into effect over the next three weeks.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will announce her country’s retaliatory tariffs on March 9th.

Tariffs are paid by the importers of the tariffed products, and the costs are routinely passed on to consumers.

For Market to Market, I’m Peter Tubbs.