Agriculture

Is it too soon to end the trade war?

Published

5 years ago

August 15, 2019

Farmers are still facing the impacts of the U.S. Trade war with China, but Americans for Limited Government, a nonprofit political organization, claimed it is not the time to cave.

Rick Manning, president of the organization, said Trump is taking a stand against unfair trade policies. Manning said China has been trying to replace the American farmer in their trade deals for years.

“They can do whatever they want to do,” Manning said. “They can buy whatever they want to buy. They are a country, and they can make those choices, but U.S. farmers need to work on other markets.”

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers sent a letter to President Donald Trump Monday asking him to end the trade wars because they are hurting Wisconsin farmers. Evers said farmers are suffering a triple whammy of trade uncertainty, low commodity prices, and bad weather.

Manning’s response was that the U.S. needs to keep fighting back.

“Your Governor says, ‘Oh no, things are hard, we should just collapse in terms of pushing back against the Chinese,'” Manning said. “If your governor really wants things to get hard, then collapse against the Chinese. Then, they will know they have the upper hand and essentially the thing they can twist to drive our policy.”

Manning pointed to the Trump Administration’s $16 billion aid package as a way to help farmers continue through trade uncertainty.

Farmers, however, have said previous funding promises were filled with loopholes and did not benefit all agriculture industries.

Kaitlyn Riley

Kaitlyn Riley’s passion for communications started on her family’s dairy farm in Gays Mills, Wis. Wanting to share agriculture’s story, she studied strategic communications and broadcast journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In college, she held officer positions with the Association of Women in Agriculture and Badger Dairy Club while volunteering as a news reporter for the college radio station. She also founded the university’s first agricultural radio talk show, AgChat. In her professional career, Kaitlyn has worked in radio, print and television news doing everything from covering local events to interviewing presidential candidates, and putting back on her barn boots to chat with farmers in the field. Today, Kaitlyn can be seen covering local stories that matter to you in the La Crosse area.