-April 30,2019-
Farmers are facing more severe weather issues, endless trade wars impacting our exports and low prices for many, not all, key ag commodities. While Wall St celebrates 3.2% GDP in the first quarter, farm GDP is rotting in the fields. Here is a quick glance at the pain threshold thanks to NASDAQ. These are 6 month charts as of April 30. They do not include hogs that are up due to Chinese swine flu and milk prices are finally up after years of red ink. The chart does not show many California key commodities like export dependent walnuts, oranges and wine, suffering from multiple trade disputes.
Farmers generally have beef over US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership allowing our competitors to gain an advantage and refusal by President Trump to withdraw tariffs on Canada and Mexico despite an announced trade agreement months ago. Press reports note GOP Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley told reporters that Trump isn’t bending to pressure to lift the duties. “The whole message from everyone in the Senate delegation that went [to the White House recently] was, ‘We’ve got to get rid of the tariffs or nothing is gonna happen,’” Grassley said. The Iowa Republican said he asked Trump directly, “Don’t you think the tariffs ought to come off?” — to which the president replied, “No.” A top Canadian diplomat said Ottawa likely won’t ratify the new North American trade pact this year if the steel and aluminum tariffs aren’t dropped.
