Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Wednesday night that he is putting together a second round of financial assistance for farmers and ranchers hit by President Trump's trade war with China. Perdue said the farm bailout will total between $15 billion and $20 billion, and include more direct payments and commodity purchases, but "many farmers doubt the scale of that aid package is anywhere near sufficient to make up for a trade spat that has shut them out of a lucrative Chinese market of 1.4 billion consumers," The Wall Street Journal reports.
"Though we are glad that the administration is considering additional assistance," Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, tells the Journal, "such temporary solutions are not sufficient to address the permanent damage the trade war has inflicted on agricultural export markets." China has retaliated against Trump's tariffs by raising tariffs on soybeans, sorghum, pork, and other U.S. agricultural products, plus slowed down purchases by state-owned companies. U.S. farm exports have plummeted and prices are at 10-year lows.
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