Reuters: Protecting American Agriculture’s Export Market is Priority

American Farm Bureau Federation’s Will Rodger was quoted in a Reuters article on the current trade situation with China and relief options for American agriculture. Noting that both farmers and agriculture policy makers are concerned, Reuters explained: “It is unclear what types of options exist to protect the sector, though expectations were that the omnibus farm bill, the U.S. government’s main food and agricultural policy tool, could include crop insurance and potentially other subsidies that could address the concerns.”

Rodger, AFBF director of policy communications, explained that while relief options have yet to be formally put forward, protecting American agriculture’s export market is priority. “We have heard no specific proposals and haven’t offered any,” Rodger told Reuters. “Our preferred outcome is a negotiated solution so that neither China nor the U.S. actually imposes tariffs,” he said.