U.S. Farmers Face $44 Billion in Losses as Costs Rise and Markets Shrink By Juan Vassallo
October 28, 2025
Introduction:
(Investigate Midwest) Soybeans sit in storage, farm bankruptcies are rising, and total farm debt continues to climb. By nearly every measure, American farmers are struggling.
Experts say financial pressures are expected to continue mounting.
Due to rising costs, low crop prices and the effects of the trade war, economists project that growers could see roughly $44 billion in net cash income losses from their 2025–26 crops.
At a September conference on agriculture and trade uncertainty hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank, Shawn Arita, professor at North Dakota State University and former senior economist with the USDA, presented projections showing losses across nine major crops.
With production costs far outpacing revenue, Arita and his team at the NDSU Agricultural Risk Policy Center estimate losses of about $20 billion for corn, $10 billion for soybeans and $8.5 billion for wheat — with peanuts, cotton, barley, oats, grain sorghum and rice adding another $6 billion combined.
Trump Cuts Tariffs on China After Meeting With Xi By Josh Boak, Chris Megerian, and Mark Schiefelbein
October 30 , 2025
Introduction:
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP VIA PBS) — President Donald Trump described his face-to-face with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday as a roaring success, saying he would cut tariffs on China, while Beijing had agreed to allow the export of rare earth elements and start buying American soybeans.
The president told reporters aboard Air Force One that the U.S. would lower tariffs implemented earlier this year as punishment on China for its selling of chemicals used to make fentanyl from 20% to 10%. That brings the total combined tariff rate on China down from 57% to 47%.
“I guess on the scale from 0 to 10, with ten being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” Trump said. “I think it was a 12.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said China agreed to purchase 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans annually for the next three years, starting with 12 million metric tons from now to January. U.S. soybean exports to China, a huge market for them, had come to a standstill in the trade dispute.
“So you know, our great soybean farmers, who the Chinese used as political pawns, that’s off the table, and they should prosper in the years to come,” Bessent told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria.”
White House Agrees to Lower Tariffs on Some Goods from Latin America — Including Argentinian Beef By Ari Hawkins
November 13, 2025
Introduction:
(Politico) The White House on Thursday announced new trade agreements with four South and Central American countries, which could lead to lower duties on some coffee and banana imports, as well as beef from Argentina.
“These are exactly the kind of deals the president is trying to strike to help balance out our trade deficits,” said a senior administration official, granted anonymity to share details of the deal.
The official said the deal with Argentina is expected to exempt beef from the 10 percent tariff on its imports. But the trade agreement does not appear to change the U.S. quota expanding the amount of beef Argentina can export to the U.S., a proposal President Donald Trump floated earlier this fall that drew fierce backlash from Republicans in Congress and the U.S. cattle industry.
“In the near term, I think we’re just going to let the market figure out how much beef it needs,” the official said.
Thursday’s announcement comes as the administration continues its efforts to bail out Argentinian President Javier Milei, a staunch Trump ally, including through a $20 billion currency swap deal with Argentina’s central bank.
With U.S. ‘Paying the Price for Trump’s Mistakes,’ He Ends Tariffs for Bananas, Beef, Coffee, and More November 14 , 2025
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Although President Donald Trump didn’t actually confess that his global trade war is driving up the cost of groceries for Americans, he did finally drop his dubiously named “reciprocal” tariffs on key imports on Friday.
According to a White House fact sheet, Trump’s new executive order ends his tariffs on beef; cocoa and spices; coffee and tea; bananas, oranges, and tomatoes; other tropical fruits and fruit juices; and fertilizers.
The New York Times had reported Thursday that “the Trump administration is preparing broad exemptions to certain tariffs in an effort to ease elevated food prices that have provoked anxiety for American consumers.”
The reporting drew critiques of the administration’s economic policies, including from members of Congress such as Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who said that “Trump just admitted it: Americans are footing the bill for his disastrous tariffs.”
Also responding to the Times reporting, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote on social media Friday: “After months of increasing grocery prices, Donald Trump is finally admitting he was wrong. Americans are literally paying the price for Trump’s mistakes.”
Farmers Should Unite to Fight Unfair Trade Policies By Anthony Pahnke
December 16, 2025
Introduction:
(The Progressive) 2025 has been a tough year for farmers.
As if the perennial problems of price volatility and changing weather patterns were not enough, the Trump Administration’s trade war with China made matters worse. In the past year, grain farmers have seen their markets increasingly taken by their Brazilian counterparts. Even after reaching a deal to purchase American soy, China’s 13 percent tariff on the commodity will continue to hurt farmers’ pocketbooks.
To make matters worse, the President’s decision to hike imports of Argentine beef into American markets instead of dedicating resources to build U.S. herds served yet another gut punch for farmers, who have also had to deal with higher prices for inputs like fertilizer.
With their markets ruined, it is no wonder that farmers desperately await $12 billion in relief payments that President Donald Trump promised to send their way. But what they’d rather have is a fair price for the crops they’ve grown. As one farmer told Trump at a December 8 roundtable, “With this bridge payment, we’ll be able to farm another year.” But that’s not good enough for people who work year-in-and-year-out getting food onto our tables.
Mexican producers, also facing economic problems, have recently taken to the streets to call for change. Since October, thousands of farmers have periodically blocked roads with their tractors around the country to demand fair prices, protect their water rights, and renegotiate the United States, Mexico, and Canada Agreement (USMCA). As in the case of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers strike this past October, free market reforms are the target. As such, this moment offers a chance for U.S. farmers to join their neighbors to the south, in seizing the opportunity to push back on free trade and encourage policymakers to support domestic markets.
Macron to urge EU to use trade 'bazooka' in response to Trump's tariffs
Source: Politico (EU)
January 18, 2026 1:39 pm CET
French President Emmanuel Macron will ask the EU to activate the bloc's so-called trade "bazooka" — the Anti-Coercion Instrument — in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats over Greenland. “He will be in contact all day with his European counterparts and will ask, in the name of France, the activation of the Anti-Coercion Instrument,” Macron's office said on Sunday.
The instrument offers the EU various punitive trade measures that can be taken against trade rivals that try to threaten the bloc. Those measures include restrictions on investment and access to public procurement schemes, as well as limits on intellectual property protections.
On Saturday, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on European countries that oppose his plans to take control of Greenland. EU ambassadors are convening an emergency meeting later Sunday to respond to the tariff threat.
Macron responded later Saturday by saying: "Tariff threats are unacceptable." "No intimidation or threat will influence us," Macron said in a post on X. "Europeans will respond in a united and coordinated manner ... We will ensure that European sovereignty is upheld," he added.
