Deb Fischer Asks USDA Nom: What Would You Tell A Farmer Feeling ‘Anxious’ About Trump’s Tariffs?

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During Tuesday’s Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee hearing, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) questioned Luke Lindberg, nominee to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, about the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on U.S. farmers.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. Senator Fischer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome, gentlemen. Thank you both

00:06for putting yourselves forward to serve this country. I appreciate that. Mr. Lindbergh,

00:12it's good to see you, and I appreciated our conversation about how trade is critical to

00:17the ag economy in my state of Nebraska. The Biden administration left us with a $49 billion

00:25agricultural trade deficit. I know you and Secretary Rollins want to tackle this problem

00:31head on. I'm excited to see that Secretary Rollins announced she will be visiting six

00:37international markets in her first six months on the job. Nebraska's ag producers have talked to me

00:44about the opportunities in a number of these markets, such as getting fair treatment for our

00:50pork in Vietnam, securing access for our biofuels in India and Brazil, and our beef in the UK.

01:00I know Nebraska's ag producers are excited about the opportunity and focus on opening markets for

01:06our ag products. A couple of weeks ago, I met with Nebraska's pork producers and discussed what

01:13opportunities for export market development they are hoping for from the Trump administration,

01:20and they shared excitement about Vietnam in particular. Other competitors, such as the European

01:27Union, Russia, and Canada already have trade agreements in place with Vietnam that give them lower tariff rates.

01:35With Secretary Rollins planning to visit Vietnam, it sounds like there is a real opportunity to ensure

01:42that we can compete fairly in that market. As the Secretary and yourself, if you are confirmed,

01:49work to open markets in new countries. How would you plan to get input and feedback from our farmers

01:56and ranchers about where they see opportunity or where they have challenges with exporting to other countries?

02:04Thank you, Senator. I also enjoyed our conversation and just want to make mention a friend of mine is

02:08here today who owns a farm in Nebraska. Bonnie Glick is with us today. So welcome to Bonnie and glad to

02:16have her as a Nebraska farmer here. Yes, absolutely. So the process by which I started my career in

02:23consulting, so I think about things in a very straightforward and strategic manner. I plan to

02:28go into my office on day one, should I be confirmed for this role, and put the number negative 49 billion

02:33on the whiteboard and begin inviting your Nebraska pork producers, all of the different commodity

02:40groups from around the country to come in and have conversations with us. This is a conversation that

02:45drives the outcome. I don't pretend to know all of the things. The actual USTR comment window that was

02:52recently opened on unfair trade practices was exceedingly helpful, and many groups began this process for us.

02:58But I say we have to get to the the $60 billion sales number so that we get back into surplus,

03:05because America has always fed the world. And right now we're not meeting our our mandate there,

03:10and we could be doing better. So it'll be a very iterative and consultative process process through

03:15the the program here. How I guess can you can you talk a little bit about how you would coordinate

03:21with organizations that receive trade promotion funding through the USDA?

03:28Absolutely, Ken. So in my current capacity as CEO of South Dakota Trade, our state's international trade

03:34office, we've worked extensively with Food Export Midwest, which receives USDA Foreign Agricultural

03:40Service funding to help promote our agricultural products overseas. We have co-worked on trade missions

03:47together in the past. I've engaged their staff in sending them referrals from South Dakota to help

03:54promote products overseas as well. And so it would be very much my pleasure and I think a continuation

04:00of the work I've already been doing to engage exactly in in what you're referring in that question.

04:04You know, I'm I know that our farmers and ranchers are excited about the prospect of opening up new

04:12markets and you know when we look at the retaliatory tariffs that are out there that that makes people

04:19nervous. But our farmers and ranchers are also willing to give the president time on this to to be able to

04:27expand those markets. We look at China and and what they're doing. They happen to be a significant market

04:36for soybeans, a major crop that we have in Nebraska. But we're facing a duty there from the Chinese of 155

04:45percent. That shuts our farmers out of that market. Can you talk a little bit about your goals when you

04:54look at China and what maybe you would see you would see them doing to meet some of the needs that we

05:08have in this country? How we can come together? What you would tell a soybean farmer in Nebraska

05:16to who's feeling anxious about those tariffs? What would you say? Sure. So one thing I might mention

05:24this morning Secretary Besant spoke at the White House and the quote I really enjoyed that he said

05:30was the aperture of uncertainty is narrowing. And if you look at the I mentioned earlier in in this

05:37hearing the data point that after we signed the China phase one agreement in the last Trump

05:42administration we actually saw a net increase in exports to China on the agricultural front of 39 percent

05:50from pre-tariff levels. So we know the trade deals work. We're going to get hopefully trade deals done

05:55early in the process and that's going to increase those export opportunities readily in the not too

06:00distant future. And so I look forward to working with you and and all of your producers to make sure

06:05that we can get that message across and that we're going to be here as a lifeline for them.

06:08Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.

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