President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to levy hefty tariffs on imports is expected to result in retaliation that hits farmers hard, repeating events of his first term, when Washington spent tens of billions of dollars to ease the pain on the agriculture sector.
Trump has proposed a blanket 10 percent to 20 percent tariff on all goods imports, a 60 percent or higher tariff on goods from China, and up to 100 percent on goods from Mexico. His tariff proposals come even as House Republicans seek to prohibit the mechanism Trump used to aid farmers in 2018 and 2019.
“Why would a country not retaliate?” asked Brian Kuehl, executive director of Farmers for Free Trade, a nonprofit organization that advocates free trade. “Everybody’s going to look out for their interest, and if you start hitting them with tariffs, they’ll start hitting you back. That’s what a trade war is.”
