Our thanks to WHO-TV for their permission to allow RadioOnTheGo News to use the following story.
With almost daily talk of adding tariffs or pausing tariffs, the atmosphere for Iowa farmers is one of uncertainty.
Those who make a living from farming have been dealing with 5-years of drought, which can impact profits. This is Franklin County Farmer April Hemmes.
“And now this time in this round of tariffs, we’re just announced today 15 % for corn and 10 % for soybeans. And that’s what’s important to us Iowa farmers is, you know, that means a lot to us, especially now our inputs are a lot higher than they were in 2017. And corn, we can maybe make a little bit of money, soybeans, it’s not looking so good.”
ISU Economist Dr. Chad Hart says it will take some time for the tariffs to be felt by farmers.
“You know, we’re just barely into these new tariffs. The only ones that have really taken effect thus far have been with China, but they’ve only been in effect for a few days. And when we think about China’s response, they have turned around and hit U.S. agriculture with additional tariffs as well. That’s what’s going to end up being more costly as time goes on. But at least right now, most of the sales that we would be making to China, we have already made.”
Hart says the immediate impact might be on steel imports from Canada.
A link to the WHO-TV story can be found below:
https://who13.com/news/iowa-news/iowa-farmers-bracing-for-potential-impacts-form-tariffs/
