Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the U.S. has to wean its farmers off reliance on China, which is refusing to buy American soybeans and reigniting trade tensions with President Trump.
Ms. Rollins said the administration is considering a special aid package for farmers that will go out once the government reopens, but the long-term goal is to find non-Chinese markets through Mr. Trump’s trade deals.
“While we have this short-term sort of back and forth, that is not good for our farmers, especially our row croppers. For the long term, we are opening up these markets so that we are not so reliant on countries like China that can, at any moment, you know, pull the rug out from under us,” Ms. Rollins told reporters at the White House.
Ms. Rollins said farmers want markets, not handouts.
“We have to get off this hamster wheel of government payment after government payment after government payment after government payment to these farmers,” Ms. Rollins said. “They don’t want these checks. They want to be able to sell their product.”
The U.S. used to be the provider of choice for China. Yet China stopped buying soybeans from American growers this year, delivering a massive financial hit to the heartland.
Mr. Trump said he would bring up the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit in South Korea later this month. Now, it is unclear whether the leaders will meet.
China imposed severe restrictions on its rare earth exports to other countries, reigniting trade tensions between the world’s largest economies. Further, Beijing is requiring countries to seek a license if they try to sell products that contain Chinese rare-earth components – even if China isn’t involved in the transaction.
Mr. Trump and his team were taken aback by the restrictions, saying they impacted the entire globe and repudiated months of work to get trade relations on track.
Beijing says the U.S. only has itself to blame after imposing export controls on certain technology and imposing port fees on Chinese ships in recent weeks.
“These measures have seriously harmed China’s interests and undermined the atmosphere of the bilateral trade discussions,” a Chinese commerce ministry spokesman said Thursday.
The situation seemed to deepen the confusion for farmers. Already, they’re reeling from low crop and high fertilizer and equipment costs.
Ms. Rollins said payments are going out to farmers based on 2023 and 2024 losses, but the administration plans to roll out a new round of aid once federal funding is restored.
“Because with the shutdown, that aid has been frozen,” Ms. Rollins said.
Given friction with China, the administration is pursuing trade deals with places like the U.K. and Japan that require other countries to buy farm products in exchange for a lower tariff rate on their goods.
“If China just abided by their original commitment to buy these products back in 2019 under the first Trump agreement, then we wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now. So that’s why this is so important,” Ms. Rollins said. “By us being aggressive and playing offense and connecting with these countries and finding these markets for our farmers, that’s how we solve this for the long term.”
