Trump ‘Doesn’t Have Skill Set Or Experience’ For China Deal, Fears Farm Union Head Concerns emerge after Trump announces he doesn’t need a trade deal until after the 2020 election and that “we’re not being affected.” Strapped American farmers were reeling after President Donald Trump announced Friday he doesn’t need a trade agreement with China until after the 2020 election. Chinese negotiators in Washington then abruptly canceled planned visits to farms in Nebraska and Montana to head back to China early. “Farmers are in serious, serious financial straits,” John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, told HuffPost Saturday. He said he fears Trump “does not have the skill set or the experience to fix things” with China. Trump told reporters Friday there was no need to work out a trade deal with China before the 2020 election because the American economy is “very strong” — despite mounting fears about a recession. “I’m not looking for a partial deal; I’m looking for a complete deal,” he said. “People know that we’re doing a great job. ... We’re not being affected.” However, farmers are struggling. Net farm income in America has plunged by nearly half over the last five years from $123 billion in 2013 to $63 billion last year. Hansen said loan delinquencies and farm bankruptcies are up in his state. “It hasn’t been this bad since the early ’80s,” he added. Farm organization leaders agree that America needed a new trade deal with China — but they haven’t agreed with Trump’s approach. National Farmers Union head Roger Johnson believes that the president has so badly botched negotiations that China is now a “lost market” and it will take “decades” to repair the damage. China needs to be “held to account” for trade relationships and behavior, Johnson said in a KFGO radio interview last month. But he said that Trump would have been wiser to approach the world’s second-largest economy with a team of allies. “I would ... argue that it would be far more effective if we did it with the rest of the world, instead of first ticking off the rest of the world and then trying to do it all by ourself,” said Johnson, whose organization represents some 200,000 family farms, ranches and fishing enterprises in 33 states. Hansen agrees that Trump needed a strategy involving other countries. “You can’t play the Lone Ranger,” he said. “But what did Trump do?” Hansen asked. “Instead of isolating China, the first jump out of the chute he isolates America.” Even with a trade deal, farmers face a tough road, Hansen warned “It takes a really long time to develop a market. It takes little time to destroy one,” he said. “It’s going to take years to rebuild — at best.”
National Farmers Union Head Scorches Trump: He’s Offended ‘Pretty Much Every Ally’ On Earth China is a now a “lost market” for agriculture, said Roger Johnson as he sounded the alarm on U.S. farmers’ dire situation in Trump’s failing trade war. The president of the National Farmers Union has leveled an astonishingly frank broadside against President Donald Trump, who rural voters largely supported in the 2016 election. Trade group leader Roger Johnson said in a radio interview Thursday that it will take “decades” to reverse damage caused by Trump. China, he added, is now a “lost market” for American farmers because of Trump’s trade war. Trump has “offended the leaders of pretty much every ally we have on Earth,” and America’s reputation in markets around the world has taken a long-lasting hit, Johnson said in an interview on KFGO radio in Fargo, North Dakota. “It’s going to take much different behavior from future presidents in order to repair this damage,” he said. Johnson, whose organization represents some 200,000 family farms, ranches and fishing enterprises in 33 states, agreed that China needs to be “held to account” for trade relationships and behavior. But he said that Trump would have been wiser to approach the world’s second-largest economy with a team of allies. “I would ... argue that it would be far more effective if we did it with the rest of world, instead of first ticking off the rest of the world and then trying to do it all by ourself,” he said. As for how Trump is dealing with China, Johnson added: “I don’t think you can expect to make the fundamental changes that are being asked of China while every other day you’re offending them, you’re forcing them to lose face. No country’s going to make changes when they’re embarrassed along the way. That’s just not how you do things.” He said “a lot of folks believe that China needs to be held accountable,” but it’s the way it’s being done that’s troubling. “You’re increasingly going to find people who sort of say, ‘This was just a mistake. This isn’t the way you solve a real problem. It’s just making things worse.’” He called many of Trump’s policy decisions “very harmful to agriculture; all the trade disruption has been enormously damaging.” Johnson said the U.S. will suffer “reputational damage ... for literally decades.” He also noted that “trade actions that this president have taken have done damage to lots of other parts of the economy” as well. Johnson slammed the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency — reportedly ordered by Trump — to grant waivers to 31 petroleum refineries effectively exempting them from having to use more corn-based ethanol in their products. It was yet another blow to struggling corn farmers in deference to what Johnson called the “wealthiest oil companies on the face of the planet.” KFGO interviewer Joel Heitkamp noted: “You can see how mad ag producers are when they see that big oil got the exemptions ... it’s like the light finally got turned on and some of these guys woke up.” Farmers “are in a lot of financial stress right now; net farm income is half of what it was six years ago,” said Johnson. “This is really tough,” he warned. “We’re in a really, really difficult spot right now.”
Wahhhhhhhhhh say America’s Farmers. Since, you know, forever... Meanwhile Corn is $3.70, Beans near $9 and wheat near $5... The crying never stops. Thank God for Trumpy putting his boot on the Chinese rather than taking it in the tailpipe as we have been for a generation.
America is the one taking in the tailpipe though while Trump gets his ass kicked while China just chills until Jan 21 when they know the moron will be out of office.
I know that’s what you want ... for America to do poorly and the Commies to keep stealing our IP. Meantime, China is getting smoked and America has the strongest economy in the developed world.
You haven’t got the foggiest idea what’s going on in China. How many times you been there in the last 5 years? I’ve been about 10 times. It’s circling the drain, like the rest, but ata much faster rate. America is still strongest so many thanks to Trumpy for kicking the Chinese in the balls And a much needed wake up call.