North Dakota farmers back push in Congress to rein in tariffs
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With planting season here, North Dakota farmers have plenty on their minds, including the escalating trade war and some hope a bipartisan bill in Congress will lead to a lot less uncertainty about the future.
A handful of U.S. senators introduced a bill supporters said would restore congressional authority over tariffs. It comes amid the latest tariffs announced by President Donald Trump, which upended global financial markets.
Bob Kuylen, a wheat farmer in western North Dakota and board vice president of the North Dakota Farmers Union, wants the bill to advance. He noted commodity prices for him are going down as the trade war heats up. Unlike manufacturers, he said, farmers cannot quickly adjust their price structure.
"We just can't say, 'Oh, well, we're just going to charge $3 more for our wheat for what they did to us.' You can't do that," Kuylen pointed out.
The measure would require the President to notify Congress of tariff action within 48 hours, which then would give lawmakers 60 days to pass a joint resolution of approval. If they do not, the tariff ends. President Trump has threatened to veto the plan, arguing it would chip away at leverage the administration has over foreign countries in negotiating new trade terms.
Kuylen noted tariffs might work in limited fashion to establish fairer trade but he feels a sweeping approach is not effective. He emphasized because certainty is hard to find these days, there's a real possibility of farms either going under or operators choosing to retire and sell off their land.
"It's either they can't get an operating loan right now, some people, and we're going to lose them, or there's people that don't want to lose any more equity and they're just going to walk away," Kuylen observed.
Kuylen added even if bigger farm operations take over, losing locally owned operations hurts surrounding communities. He echoed other producers in arguing agriculture still has not recovered from the trade war under the first Trump administration. Neither of North Dakota's U.S. Senators responded to comment requests on whether they support the bill.
