Elissa Slotkin Asks USDA Nom About Handling Farmers’ ‘Short-Term Pain’ From Trump’s Tariff Policy

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During Tuesday’s Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee hearing, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) questioned Luke Lindberg, nominee to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, about how farmers will be impacted by President Trump’s tariff policy.

Transcript

00:00Senator Slotkin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome to both of you. I want to pick up on something

00:07that Senator Hoeven was talking about, and that is acknowledging that there's real short-term pain

00:14that will be directed at our farmers due to the tariff policy. And I think what is happening now

00:22is we're saying the quiet part out loud. You're repeating what Senator, what President Trump said

00:27and what Secretary Rollins alluded to, which is we will help pay for farmers to get them through

00:33this short-term pain. And just to review the bidding, as someone who lives on our family

00:38soybean farm, it now grows soybean and corn, under the first Trump administration,

00:44the president did what seemed, I think, like a normal activity. He put 15% tariffs on Chinese

00:50goods, a bunch of Chinese batteries, pork, a bunch of things. That we can control. It's the retaliation

00:56we can't control. China retaliated. They put huge retaliatory tariffs, particularly aimed at

01:03soybean farmers. We had $27 billion of agricultural losses, and our soybean farmers lost 15% market

01:12share. We never got it back. China buys their soybeans from Brazil and from Argentina. We never

01:18got it back. And how did the Trump administration cover down on those losses? Because the farmers,

01:23as you can imagine, were losing their minds. We paid them with taxpayer dollars paid for by this

01:29committee to the tune of $23 billion in what people would call government checks, welfare checks.

01:37And farmers hate taking welfare. They just want to compete. So I don't think there's a question on

01:43the desire, particularly against China, to go after them and their unfair trading practices. It's that we

01:49can't control where the trade war goes. So can you acknowledge that that is the accurate description

01:55of what happened on soybean farmer, for soybean farmers in the last administration from that trade war?

02:03Senator, thank you for the question. And I appreciate the fact that you're a family farmer.

02:07That's wonderful. Thank you for giving me a chance to comment on it. If you look at the trade data

02:13from our phase one trade negotiations with China and the first Trump administration, the agricultural

02:20exports when tariffs were implemented by President Trump did have a drop in the subsequent year after

02:26the tariffs were implemented. If you look at the trade data the year after the China phase one deal

02:31was signed between the U.S. and China, agricultural exports went up to 39 percent higher than pre-tariff

02:39levels. So before the tariff started, after the tariffs went into place, we saw a dip. We saw market

02:45facilitation payments happen. And then after the year after that occurred, a 39 percent increase on what

02:52was pre-tariff levels for agricultural exports to China. And so why were we cutting checks to farmers from

02:58this committee? Literally taxpayer dollars. So not something to sneeze at. Why were we having to subsidize

03:05our farmers who just wanted to compete in this field? Honestly. Like the stats sound great and I

03:12would be thrilled, right? No one, no one, I'm a CIA officer. No one wants to push back on China more

03:16than me. But the truth is we paid from this committee checks to farmers to get them through and then

03:23completely lost that market share. So I just, I think we need to acknowledge I had a big farm kind of

03:30town hall in Frankenmuth, Michigan on Friday. And these are, you know, these are folks who are not

03:35Democrats, that's for sure. And they are stressed out about the potential retaliation. And you combine

03:41that with the immigration issues, right? They have legal vetted immigrants who are not showing up to

03:46work because they're scared. Our farmers have just a high level of uncertainty right now. And I just ask

03:52you to, again, we don't want to subsidize with basically welfare checks our farmers because of trade

03:57policy. And please, please stand in the breach on that. Other topic I want to add to the chorus on

04:04the unfair trade practices that lots of countries use with us. And I want to put on your radar that I

04:10want you to go into battle with the country of Turkey on tart cherries. We would love you to do

04:16blueberries, asparagus, potatoes, go to battle, go launch. And I want to know what you will specifically

04:24do, particularly for the specialty crop folks in the on the this end of the dais, to make sure that

04:31even some of the smaller countries that we do trade with are going to get some hammers.

04:37Yeah, I believe in an all of the above trade approach. The America First trade agenda, I believe,

04:41calls for that. We need to do big deals, little deals, medium deals, and all kinds of deals to make

04:48sure that we get that market access. So not only will I again be working with my interagency colleagues to

04:53make sure that we're advocating for our farmers and ranchers in these trade discussions we're having

04:58today, but the Foreign Agricultural Service does an excellent job of maintaining a list of non-tariff

05:04barriers that our farmers are facing around the world. And I will absolutely address those every

05:09time I get the chance overseas to meet with my counterparts in other countries and break those

05:14down. Great. Please go to Turkey. Thank you. I yield back.

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