The country’s dairy producers are preparing for the economic benefits of President Donald Trump’s trade war with Mexico, Canada and China – the three main buyers of American dairy products.
Trump’s promised tariffs on these countries will strike the dairy producers of the County of Lancaster, which, in 2022, produced 2.1 billion pounds of milk, at the top of the northeast marketing order of milk.
One of these farmers is Robert Orley, co -owner of Star Rock Farm in the canton of Manor and president of Pennsylvania Milk Board.
He said that prices on American imports could trigger countries to retaliate with their own prices, as has already happened in other industries. This could push foreign customers to buy cheaper dairy products to non -American sources and to harm farmers’ income by limiting their access to foreign markets.
“This would mean that we have one of the two choices: finding other export partners who would take our product or work on means of increasing domestic consumption,” said Barley, noting that Pennsylvania farmers do not export a lot of liquid milk. The prices, he said, would harm cheese, butter and dairy products powder.
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Barley said that he and many farmers he had spoken of maintained an attitude “to wait and see” because the president’s changing tariff policies make it difficult for farmers to fully prepare for any impact on their results.
In recent months, Trump has delayed an almost complex price of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico, while doubling a 20% price on Chinese imports.
But on March 16, Trump reaffirmed his plans to implement reciprocal prices on imports from April 2, one day he called “liberating” because he said that it would allow the United States to find “the wealth that very, very stupid presidents gave because they had no idea what they were doing”.
Christian Herr, executive vice-president of Harrisburg Association Agriculture, Pennag, said that the volatility of pricing policies had caused “a lot of anxiety” among farmers on a state scale.
Due to other tariff policies, Herr said, farmers are preparing to pay more for imported grains, aluminum and steel fertilizers and products.
“Although I think many farmers align with the president, he has had his disadvantages for sure,” said Herr.
According to a March CNN and SSRS survey, 20% of respondents who voted for Trump last year said they had disapproved of its use of prices, while 80% approved.
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Rippress against Canada
A large part of Trump’s ire was launched in Canada and its price of more than 200% on various American dairy products imported beyond a set ceiling in the American-Mexican-Canadian agreement, which Trump negotiated during his first mandate.
Although the dairy industry says that US exports have never reached this threshold, Trump has misunderstood its scope on several occasions to threaten a similar price on Canadian dairy products.
The Trump administration said that part of its objective with prices against Canada, Mexico and China is to push countries to do more to combat the fentanyl crisis and other national security problems. This week, the national media reported that the White House plans to make a decree declaring “illicit” fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
Last year, only 42 pounds of fentanyl were seized on the American border of Canada, according to customs and border protection; Compared to 21,000 pounds on the southern border.
Kirsten Hillman, a Canadian ambassador to the United States, told NBC News this week that Canada had discussed the Trump administration problems with Canada’s response to the fentanyl crisis. Other prices, she said, such as steel and aluminum taxes, seem to be in place to encourage production in the United States
If large reciprocal prices come into force on April 2, Hillman said that “nothing is outside the table” for Canada to answer.
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Current quarrel
US dairy producers have challenged Canada’s supply management policies that restrict the amount of American dairy products that it can buy. They say that Canada’s policies do not allow full access to the share of 3.5% of the Canadian dairy market market which, they said, were allocated to American dairy in their trade agreement.
However, Canadian dairy producers have said that the trade agreement has shorted them from their domestic market and has enabled the United States to export hundreds of millions of dollars more to dairy products that they of Canada.
“This increased access to the United States has reached a direct cost for Canadian dairy producers, reducing its market share and weakening the stability of the national dairy sector in Canada,” David Wiens, president of dairy producers in Canada said in a statement on March 8.
The $ 1.14 billion in Canada spent last year on American dairy products made it the second buyer, behind $ 2.47 billion in Mexico and ahead of China’s $ 584 million, according to USDA data.
Shawna Morris, executive vice-president of US Dairy Export Council and the National Federation of Milk Federation, said that the Dairy Industry wanted the Trump Renegocate administration the rate rate quotas under the American-mexico-Canada agreement to guarantee that American farmers can “make use of access to access”.
In addition, Morris said that negotiations should contact a flaw that Canada has used to escape the rules against its low-cost exporting dairy protein, effectively undervaluating American producers.
Morris added that April 2 should be a turning point for the Trump administration, “in terms of completing the exchanges of problematic business partners”.
“We can understand that the president considers prices as a tool in the process, but we want to make sure that this is used to achieve a goal here,” said Morris.
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The final objective
The Congress of County Congress of Lancaster, Lloyd Smucker, applauded the use of prices by Trump, claiming that Canada “failed to comply with its commitments” in their trade agreement, and that the country uses various tactics to “lock” the American dairy products in its markets.
“I believe that the president holds other responsible nations, by treating our business partners as they deal with us, with an end objective to open the markets for American producers,” said Smucker. “It has been expected for a long time; we have taken advantage of it for too long.”
Meanwhile, Governor Josh Shapiro criticized Trump’s reciprocal prices, saying that they will injure the dairy producers.
“They are about to closure of the markets because of this ridiculous trade war that the president began with our two closest allies,” Shapiro said at a press conference in Pittsburgh earlier this month. “Our farmers will suffer.”
But barley was optimistic that temporary dairy rates could bear fruit to farmers if Trump’s movements convince other countries to reduce their restrictions on American products. To take advantage of the farmers, said Barley, the American prices should be raised after other countries have opened their markets.
“If the prices persist, and this causes limited access to exports and less capacity to export, then I’m not sure they have accomplished anything,” said Barley.
