R Street Policy Study No. 176: The Fallouts of Bailouts
WASHINGTON (June 28, 2019)—The ongoing trade wars have been enormously costly for America’s farmers and ranchers. It took our agriculture community decades to establish market access across the world, and the Trump administration is rapidly squandering that. Its bailout programs will damage trade relations, hurt taxpayers and harm the environment.
In a new policy study, R Street Trade Policy Counsel Clark Packard discusses how farmers and ranchers are bearing the brunt of the president’s trade wars. He finds the bailout package to be a misguided attempt to paper over the fallout from the trade wars.
Packard argues that in order for farmers and ranchers to effectively sell their products across the globe, we need to end the trade wars, eliminate the bailout program and cut agriculture subsidies.
He concludes that “American farmers and ranchers have spent decades establishing themselves as steady and reliable trading partners. In 2017, the last year before the trade wars began, about 20 percent of farm income was derived from agricultural exports. Yet today, the agricultural community is facing an uncertain future as trade barriers have proliferated due to misguided policies from the Trump administration.”
