Trade conflicts cost Nebraska more than $1 billion in revenue, Farm Bureau says

Source: The Hill | December 4, 2018 | Justin Wise

A new report from the Nebraska Farm Bureau estimates that President Trump’s trade conflicts have cost the state’s farmers as much as $1 billion.

“Retaliatory tariffs make our U.S. products more expensive for international customers, meaning they buy less or buy from someplace else,” Nebraska Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson said Monday in a statement, according to the Omaha World-Herald. “This report provides a clear picture of how much we’ve lost due to those tariffs and the need to improve our trade relations.”

The study did not take into account Market Facilitation Payments from the Trump administration. Those payments are aimed to offset farm revenue losses as a result of trade disputes.

Jay Rempe, a Nebraska Farm Bureau senior economist, told the newspaper that corn, soybeans and pork have been negatively impacted by the trade conflicts.

“The total loss in Nebraska farm revenues due to the retaliatory tariffs ranges from $695 million to $1.026 billion so far in 2018,” Rempe said. “That’s roughly 11 to 16 percent of the export values of Nebraska agriculture goods in 2017.”

The analysis also said that when direct farm losses are combined with the state’s labor income losses, the total economic loss to Nebraska ranges between $859 million and $1.2 billion.

“To put a $1.2 billion loss into perspective, every person in the state of Nebraska would need to contribute $632 to cover that volume of lost dollars. That’s a significant hit to our state’s economy,” Rempe said.

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