Farmers Get $750,000 Payments
The Trump administration made payments to 43 farming operations in Jeff Davis County to offset farm losses due to President Donald Trump’s tariff war with China.
The payments totaled over $750,000, primarily going to 37 cotton farmers in the county. While five payments were made to corn producers, totaling $798, and a $10,546 payment was made to one soybean farmer, the remainder all went to 38 cotton farmers. The payments to the cotton farmers ranged from a low of $1,738 to a high of $146,535. Most were in the $20-$30 thousand dollar range.
When President Trump imposed the first tariffs on Chinese goods, China’s government responded with tariffs on a number of U.S. goods, including agricultural products. The hardest hit by China’s tariffs were U.S. farmers. Most affected were soybean farmers as U.S. soybean exports fell from $20.6 billions to about $15 billion from July 2018 to May 2019. Cotton and corn sales also plummeted.
To compensate for the lost sales to China, the U.S. government rolled out two rounds of trade aid for farmers, expected to total $28 billion. As of the end of June, only $8.6 billion had been doled out, so local farmers and farmers across the country will continue to receive government funds in an effort to offset the loss of sales.
Recently, President Trump announced an additional 10% tariff on goods from China and China reciprocated. While the first round of tariffs hit farmers and industries hard, the coming round is expected to send prices for consumer goods skyrocketing. Especially hard hit will be the shoe industries as most American shoes are produced in China.
According to a representative of the Consumer Technology Association, the plan for more tariffs would raise the price of cellphones by an average of $70, the price of laptop computers by $120 and video game consoles by $56.
If the proposed tariffs go into effect Sept. 1 as planned, Americans can expect to pay for the tariffs through increased prices on a wide range of consumer items in the coming months.
