When speaking about his tariffs in March, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!”
However, instead of “fun” domestic sales, many farmers are struggling to sell their crops inside the U.S.
The closure of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) had a hand to play in this, being one of the largest buyers of U.S. grown crops as it spent around $2.1 billion a year providing worldwide food aid.
Without USAID providing consistent demand, many farmers have been trying to find other buyers to make up costs, without much success.
Some farmers also rely heavily on trade with Chinese markets. After China retaliated against Trump’s tariffs with a 10 percent tariff of its own on U.S. goods, as of August 27, not a single U.S. soybean cargo had been purchased by China ….
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