Kind speaks with farmers, manufacturers on how tariff war is affecting them

The U.S.-China trade war doesn’t seem to have an end in sight and American farmers and manufacturers are getting hit hard.

U.S. Congressman Ron Kind (D-La Crosse) was in town Thursday afternoon to hear how those groups are being affected.

Kind said President Donald Trump’s aid package is not the solution.

“A $12 billion aid package coming out of Washington targeting family farmers,” Kind said. “I haven’t heard a family farmer, yet, that wants that, as opposed to the ability to be able to sell their product in the marketplace for a decent price.”

China has placed retaliatory tariffs on items like dairy, cranberries and pork.

Kind said when the folks in rural America are worried, everyone else should be, too.

“When there’s a real downturn in the world economy, it usually precedes a larger economic downturn for our national economy,” Kind said. “We’ve seen this time and time again. And right now our farmers are kind of at the end. They don’t have cash reserves.”

Kind says the U.S. should be getting more trade deals done with countries, rather than having tariff wars, because “it’s a race to the bottom”

Instead of fighting with China, Kind would like to see countries work together, as it seems to succeed elsewhere.

“By establishing trade agreements, to establish what the rule of trade will be, and you can elevate the standards and values to where we are, with the the countries that we currently have a trade agreement with, we do very well,” Kind said.