A GOP senator insisted Tuesday that farmers “are sticking with” President Trump despite taking a hit from the trade war with China that has hit agriculture hard.
“They are sticking with the president right now but they are running out of time,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.C.) told Hill.TV in an interview.
“We are down 94 percent in our exports to China. Our producers understand that this is part of a bigger picture. And that they are in the tip of the spear,” Rounds said.
He said soybean farmers, which has taken a hit from the fight with China, back Trump because “what they really want is the fair ability to be able to trade and to be able to produce and to be able to market their products on a competitive basis.”
A recent analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found farm bankruptcies on the rise, with 90 farms in the states of Montana, Minnesota Wisconsin and North and South Dakota declaring bankruptcy over the past year.
“Bad news,” said Democratic Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), who won reelection this month while under attack from Trump. He said the trade fight is costing U.S. farmers markets.
Congress is trying to finish work on a new farm bill in the lame-duck session that Rounds said is “a priority for anybody in the upper Midwest.”
“We absolutely need to get it done, no question about that,” he said.
– Molly K. Hooper
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