The Trump Administration will announce a new $16 billion farm aid package to offset losses from the U.S. trade war with China, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue confirmed Thursday.

In an interview on Fox Business Network, Perdue said: “China is going to pay for this $16 billion through tariffs coming in” and that “the revenue we’re receiving is what the president has intended to fund the farmers who are being hurt by these retaliatory tariffs.”

It would be the second bailout for farmers connected to Trump’s tariff showdowns with China, Mexico and other countries. The Trump administration announced $12 billion in emergency measures last July.

Perdue acknowledged Thursday that U.S. farmers have been hit hard by the escalating trade fight with Beijing, and accused China of targeting the president in advance of his 2020 re-election bid.

“Farmers have been hurt disproportionately and China knows. They’ve gone right at President Trump’s base politically that makes farmers feel pain, and he’s not letting them bear the brunt of that,” Perdue said.

Perdue did not offer further details before an official announcement expected later Thursday.

President Trump was scheduled to meet farm groups at the White House at a 3:15 p.m. event Thursday. </s> The Trump administration rolled out a second aid package worth for American farmers on Thursday, worth $16 billion, to help mitigate the effects of a more-than year-long trade war between the U.S. and China.

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President Trump said that the aid -- a response to China’s latest retaliatory tariffs -- will include $14.5 billion in direct payments to farmers through the market facilitation program. There will be three payments installments, beginning in July. Additional payments will follow in November and January as needed.

Another $1.4 billion will be allocated to the Food Purchase and Distribution Program to purchase surplus commodities affected by the trade war. Those goods will then be distributed to schools, food banks and other groups, the White House said.

The remaining $100 million will go to developing new export markets for American producers through the Agricultural Trade Promotion Program.

"We will make sure the farmers get the relief they need, and very, very quickly," Trump said at a White House event on Thursday. "It's a good time to be a farmer."

A group of farmers came to the White House on Thursday to attend an event with the president, during which details of the second aid package were released.

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"We're giving them that level playing field that's so important," Trump said.

“Details on the new trade mitigation program will be forthcoming shortly, but we want to be clear that the program is being designed to avoid skewing planting decisions one way or another,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said earlier in the week. “Farmers should continue to make their planting and production decisions with the current market signals in mind, rather than some expectation of what a trade mitigation program might or might not look like, based on a media story.”

China is the biggest buyer of U.S. soybeans, importing more than $12.4 billion worth of the oil seed in 2017, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, but retaliatory tariffs by China resulted in U.S. soybean exports to China falling by more than 80 percent with Brazil and Argentina supplying China instead.

Last year, as a result of the tariffs, soybeans in storage totaled about 3.74 billion bushels, up 18 percent from the prior year, according to data from the USDA.

According to Bloomberg, the aid plan could include payments of about $2 per bushel to soybean growers, 63 cents per bushel to wheat growers and 4 cents per bushel to corn growers. The administration’s last aid plan included $1.65 per bushel for soybean growers, 14 cents per bushel for wheat and 1 cent per bushel for corn.

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In July, the Trump administration announced a $12 billion farm aid package -- including $4.7 billion in direct payments to farmers -- to help shield them from the effects of global trade spats with China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union. The bulk of the payments went to soybean farmers. </s> President Donald Trump says he is “honored” to give U.S. farmers hurt by the trade war with China another $16 billion in aid.

Flanked by potato growers, ranchers and dairymen in the White House, Trump said Thursday the aid “will help keep our cherished farms thriving and make clear that no country has a veto on America’s economic and national security.”

Trump added that trade has been “very unfair” to the farmers who he says support him politically.

This is the second multibillion-dollar bailout the Trump administration has provided to U.S. farmers who have seen Chinese markets for their products dry up because of tariffs China imposed on U.S. goods to retaliate for U.S. tariffs on Chinese products. The White House gave farmers $12 billion last year.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says farmers should see the first installment of the new $16 billion in aid in July or August. Perdue said he doubts if the United States and China can reach a trade deal by then.

Most of the money will go to farmers who grow and sell such crops as soybeans, corn, peanuts and wheat. Money will also be set aside to buy excess products from the farmers and send them to schools and food banks.

“I can’t recall a president more concerned about farmer well-being. We are working hard to assess trade damages and this package ensures farmers will not bear the brunt,” Perdue said.

While Trump said Thursday that many farmers told him he is “doing the right thing,” some trade experts call the bailout a political ploy and say farmers are more concerned about winning back the lost Chinese market. </s> • President Donald Trump is preparing to provide billions in emergency aid for farmers who are caught up in the middle of his administration’s trade battles.
• The White House is expected to make the announcement of the $12 billion plan on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump is preparing to provide billions in emergency aid for farmers caught in the crosshairs of his administration’s various burgeoning trade battles.

The White House is expected to make the announcement of the $12 billion plan on Tuesday, according to The Washington Post.

Farmers have said retaliatory moves by other countries in response to the president’s trade policies could cost them billions of dollars. It has led to fear among Republicans of economic and political blowback to Trump’s policies, according to the report, as the party looks to avoid significant losses in the midterm elections this November.

As a result, Republicans and business groups have complained to Trump that his trade policies are hurting the economy.

Tuesday’s expected announcement of emergency aid to farmers through the Department of Agriculture comes amid a search to find a way to alleviate the concerns of farmers and industry groups without sacrificing Trump’s protectionist policies.

The emergency aid will be provided to farmers through direct assistance, a government food purchase and distribution program, and a trade promotion program. It would be done in part through a division of the Agricultural Department that was created to provide financial support for farmers, according to the Post.

However, the White House’s plan is not expected to be a long-term solution if the trade battles continue.

Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to defend his policies.

“Countries that have treated us unfairly on trade for years are all coming to Washington to negotiate,” Trump tweeted. “This should have taken place many years ago but, as the saying goes, better late than never!”

“Tariffs are the greatest!” Trump continued on Tuesday. “Either a country which has treated the United States unfairly on Trade negotiates a fair deal, or it gets hit with Tariffs. It’s as simple as that – and everybody’s talking! Remember, we are the “piggy bank” that’s being robbed. All will be Great!” </s> Topline: President Donald Trump announced a $16 billion aid package for farmers suffering from tariffs, the second farm bailout in less than a year. As the U.S.-China trade war continues, American farmers—who were a key demographic in electing Trump—are increasingly losing confidence in the administration as the agriculture industry bears the brunt of the tariffs.
• $14.5 billion of the $16 billion aid package will go directly into farmers’ pockets, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a conference call Thursday.
• $1.4 billion will go toward food for schools and food banks, according to The Washington Post.
• $100 million will be used for a program that helps develop new markets for U.S. exports outside of China, according to CNBC.

Key P.O.V: “Farmers themselves will tell you they’d rather have trade than aid,” Perdue said, according to the Wall Street Journal, but in the absence of a deal “they’ll need some support.”

Background: The aid comes after Trump increased tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods after trade talks with China fell apart earlier this month. China, in turn, responded with its own wave of tariffs.

This is the second aid package for farmers hit by the trade war. The Trump administration spent $12 billion in aid last year after the original tariffs were levied.

While other industries, particularly tech and automobile companies, are being hit hard by tariffs, American farmers who sell their crops in China have been disproportionately affected. Soybean exports, for example, have already dropped 80% since the first round of tariffs last year.

How is the government paying for this? Trump said in an announcement that tariff revenue collected by the government would be the source of the aid money. But since directly pouring tariff revenue into the aid package isn’t legal, the money will be drawn from the U.S. Treasury through an Agriculture Department program that has the authority to spend $30 billion on programs to help farmers without Congressional approval.

The aid might help, but … : A recent Fox Business survey found that more than a third of farmers said they were losing confidence in Trump’s ability to secure a trade deal. </s> White House Announces $16 Billion In Aid To Farmers Hurt By China Trade Dispute

The Trump administration will provide $16 billion in aid to keep farmers afloat as they reel from the yearlong trade war between the U.S. and China, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters in a briefing on Thursday.

The bulk of the aid, or about $14.5 billion, is direct aid to farmers, which producers will start to see some time this summer, Perdue said.

"While farmers themselves will tell you they'd rather than trade than aid, without the trade that has been possible, they're going to need some support," he said.

Perdue placed the blame for farmers' economic losses on China, rather than the Trump administration's own hard-line trade tactics.

"Frankly," he said, "all of this would have been moot if China would have acted appropriately and fairly in many of the areas regarding intellectual property theft and non-tariff barriers that they have put up for many years."

While the aid comes from a fund known as the Commodity Credit Corporation, a federal entity founded during the Depression devoted to stabilizing farm income and prices, Trump administration officials including Perdue have said China will pay for the aid to the farm sector.

When asked to explain that assertion, Perdue explained the president's logic.

"The president feels very strongly that the tariff revenue is going to be used to support this program, which will come back out and replenish the CCC, as it does every year," Perdue said. "While legally you can't direct tariff payments into agriculture, that's what the president feels like China is paying for this program."

The plan also includes efforts to sell American products in more markets outside of China. Officials said about $100 million will be put toward market diversification.

Agriculture has been among sectors hit hardest by the U.S. trade conflict with China. The announcement of new relief to farmers comes as fears are rising over an economic slump in the agricultural economy.

Trump's hard-line moves on trade with China have reduced U.S. income at a rate of around $1.4 billion a month, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Analysis by the New York Fed estimates the new tariffs will cost the average U.S. household $831 annually.

Last year, the Trump administration provided $12 billion in aid to farmers to try to offset their losses from the trade war.

The economic troubles have had multiplier effects in recent months. Some farmers across the Midwest are struggling with debt, prompting bankruptcy filings among farmers to rise sharply. A further blow for the country's agricultural sector has come in the form of natural disasters. Floods have killed livestock and drowned hundreds of millions of dollars in crops.

Trump is expected address the nation's farmers Thursday afternoon from the White House. </s> (WASHINGTON) — The government announced a $12 billion plan Tuesday to assist farmers who have been hurt by President Donald Trump’s trade disputes with China and other trading partners.

The plan focuses on Midwest soybean producers and others targeted by retaliatory measures.

The Agriculture Department said the proposal would include direct assistance for farmers, purchases of excess crops and trade promotion activities aimed at building new export markets. Officials said the plan would not require congressional approval and would come through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a wing of the department that addresses agricultural prices.

“This is a short-term solution that will give President Trump and his administration the time to work on long-term trade deals,” said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Officials said the direct payments could help producers of soybeans, which have been hit hard by the Trump tariffs, along with sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and farmers raising hogs.

In Kansas City, meanwhile, Trump told a veterans convention that he was trying to renegotiate trade agreements that he said have hurt American workers, and he asked for patience ahead of key talks.

“We’re making tremendous progress. They’re all coming. They don’t want to have those tariffs put on them,” Trump told the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention.

Trump declared earlier Tuesday that “Tariffs are the greatest!” and threatened to impose additional penalties on U.S. trading partners as he prepared for negotiations with European officials at the White House.

Tariffs are taxes on imports. They are meant to protect domestic businesses and put foreign competitors at a disadvantage. But the taxes also exact a toll on U.S. businesses and consumers, which pay more for imported products.

The Trump administration has slapped tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijing’s high-tech industrial policies. China has retaliated with duties on soybeans and pork, affecting Midwest farmers in a region of the country that supported the president in his 2016 campaign.

Trump has threatened to place penalty taxes on up to $500 billion in products imported from China, a move that would dramatically ratchet up the stakes in the trade dispute involving the globe’s biggest economies.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed. </s> The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will grant up to $12 billion in emergency aid to farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs in the ongoing trade fight with China and other American trading partners.

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said that the plan, which will provide direct assistance and other temporary relief for farmers through the USDA’s commodity program, is meant as a stopgap measure that will give Trump time to negotiate a long-term policy with China, the European Union and others.

The plan was announced as Trump spoke at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Kansas City, where he urged patience in dealing with the tariffs and claimed that “farmers will be the biggest beneficiary” of the trade deals in the end.

“Farmers will be the biggest beneficiaries,” Trump told the crowd gathered inside Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium. “We’re going to do something that has never been done.”

The plan, however, has already magnified objections among some Republicans that the tariffs amount to taxes on American consumers. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said lawmakers are making the case to Trump that tariffs are “not the way to go.”

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said the plan would spend billions on “gold crutches.”

“America’s farmers don’t want to be paid to lose — they want to win by feeding the world,” he said. “This administration’s tariffs and bailouts aren’t going to make America great again, they’re just going to make it 1929 again.”

The Trump administration has slapped tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijing’s high-tech industrial policies. China has retaliated with duties on soybeans and pork, affecting Midwest farmers in a region of the country that supported the president in his 2016 campaign.

Trump has threatened to place penalty taxes on up to $500 billion in products imported from China, a move that would dramatically ratchet up the stakes in the trade dispute involving the globe’s biggest economies.

The administration has also engaged in hardline trading negotiations with Canada and European nations, seeking to renegotiate agreements he says have undermined the nation’s manufacturing base and led to a wave of job losses in recent decades.

The imposition of punishing tariffs on imported goods has been a favored tactic by Trump, but it has prompted U.S. partners to retaliate, creating risks for the economy.

Trump has placed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, saying they pose a threat to U.S. national security, an argument that allies such as the European Union and Canada reject. He has also threatened to slap tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totaled $335 billion.

The president on Wednesday will meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the White House as the EU hopes to convince him to hold off from raising tariffs on imported cars and avoid a trans-Atlantic trade war.

During his speech in Kansas, Trump appeared less than conciliatory in his approach to European allies. He called the EU “terrible” and said the U.S. was losing billions of dollars in a trade deficit.

“These countries have been ripping us off for decades,” he said. “What the EU is doing is terrible.”

The stakes are high, as the car industry carries huge heft in terms of trade and jobs in both the EU and U.S.

The European car federation says that the United States is the No. 1 destination for EU-built cars, amounting to almost 30 percent of the total EU export value. It accounts for a quarter of U.S. car imports.

If Trump imposes a 25 percent tariff on imports of cars, trucks and auto parts, it “risks dragging us all down to a game of tit for tat retaliations that ultimately leave consumers in the U.S. as well as in Europe worse off,” said Professor Alexander Mattelaer of the Egmont Institute think tank.

Fox News’ Kelly Chernenkoff and The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled a new $16 billion aid package to help farmers caught in the crossfire his trade war with China.

"The farmers have been attacked by China," Trump told reporters at the White House. "We're going to help out our farmers and we're giving them that level playing field that is so important."

Trump again claimed that China is paying the 25 percent tariffs he has imposed on $200 billion in imports, which economists agree are paid by businesses and consumers.

"Some of that money will go to the farmers to help them out during a period where trade has been very unfair to them," Trump said.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the bulk of the funds will go to direct payments to crop and livestock producers, while a small portion will be used to purchase food to use in US aid programs like food banks and school lunch programs.

"The plan we are announcing today ensures farmers do not bear the brunt of unfair retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and other trading partners," Perdue told reporters in a conference call.

"Farmers would rather have trade than aid but without the trade they are going to need some support."

Trump's aggressive tariff strategy, especially against China, has drawn stiff retaliation from Beijing and others designed to hit the United States where it hurts: farm country.

Soybeans and pork have been primary targets, but many other crops have suffered directly or indirectly. Soybean exports to China fell 75 percent in 2018, according to Commerce Department figures.

The Trump administration ramped up the aid from the $12 billion provided last year but officials said they increased and redesigned the program this year to make it easier to understand.

There were high hopes early this month that a resolution with China was within striking distance but that optimism largely evaporated when Trump said Beijing had backed away from commitments considered already settled.

- Not playing by the rules -

He more than doubled existing punitive tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, and threatened to hit all the goods that had been spared so far.

"China hasn't played by the rules for a long time and President Trump is standing up to them, sending the clear message that the United States will no longer tolerate their unfair trade practices," Perdue said.

The US Department of Agriculture will calculate damage done by the retaliation, and officials said the first of three payments is expected to go out in July or August.

The officials did not indicate the expected size of the payments, but Perdue said the aid will be "heavily skewed" towards the first payment, while the others will depend on the market and the status of the trade talks.

But reaching an agreement now "depends on China."

USDA officials said the amount each farmer receives will be based on the damage calculated to each US county, with equal payments made to all farmers based on the acreage planted, regardless of crop, to prevent distorting planting decisions.

Dairy and pork producers, as well as growers of cherries, cranberries and nuts, also will receive support, officials said.
The White House announces $12 billion in bailouts for farmers and ranchers affected by recently imposed retaliatory tariffs.