Amid trade war, farmers group says Nebraska farmers on 'verge of crisis'

DORCHESTER, Neb. — Farmers in southeast Nebraska warned their congressman Friday that the cost of President Donald Trump’s trade war is nearing a tipping point for growers as a national advocacy group, armed with new data, launched a 14-state tour seeking to accelerate the country’s path to trade deals.

At a Friday kickoff event for Farmers for Free Trade’s Midwest tour at the Farmers Cooperative in Dorchester, growers told Nebraska Rep. Adrian Smith that low corn and soybean prices and rising input costs — driven up at least in part by Trump’s tariffs — are harming the state’s largest industry.

“The input costs are killing us,” said Dan Nerud, a corn and soybean farmer from the Dorchester area who serves on the Nebraska Corn Board. “That’s the biggest comment I hear. We just need the trade. We need that opportunity to sell our products so we do have a viable farm.”

“It’s not gonna be very viable for some of these guys next year to even get funds to operate again,” he warned.

Thanks to Trump’s tariffs, Nebraska farmers have spent millions more on inputs in the first six months of the year, according to state-specific data that Farmers for Free Trade released Friday as the group kicked off its Midwest tour in the Cornhusker State, which ranks fifth in the nation in ag exports.

Through June, Nebraska growers paid $25 million in extra tariffs on steel and building materials, $16 million extra on vehicle and transportation costs, $6.7 million extra on machinery and equipment and $3.2 million in extra tariffs on fertilizer, the advocacy group reported Friday.

Nearly every country in the world has seen taxes on its exports to the United States rise since Trump took office and followed through on his campaign promise to institute tariffs, many of which are caught up in legal challenges that may not end until mid-October at the earliest.

Some countries — including China, the third-largest export market for Nebraska farmers and the top market for soybean growers — have retaliated.

Nebraska’s soybean exports are down 15%, which Farmers For Free Trade attributed “wholly” to a 52% decline in exports to China. There were no soybean exports at all from Nebraska to China in June, the group reported.

“We’re on the verge of a farm crisis,” said Brian Kuehl, the co-executive director of Farmers for Free Trade, who spoke with reporters after the group launched its Midwest tour.

“Their cost of production is above what they can get for selling their product,” he said. “You can do that for a year. Maybe you can do that for two years. But eventually it catches up, and what you’ll start to see is illiquidity. You’ll start to see farm bankruptcies and foreclosures.”

Smith, who represents Nebraska’s vast 3rd Congressional District and who chairs the House’s Agriculture Trade Caucus, signaled continued support for Trump’s efforts to negotiate trade deals — the intent behind the president’s use of tariffs. He called on Congress to codify the deals once they’re reached.

But unlike some of his colleagues in Nebraska’s congressional delegation who have called on Trump’s trade war to end by Christmas, Smith declined to put a timeline on when tariffs — which the U.S. Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to impose — should cease.

“I would say that the right policy, the sooner the better,” he said. “We’ve got to get the right policy in place and ultimately, though, get other countries to agree to open their markets. We’ve been making progress. I think that’s good. But the sooner we can land the plane on overall trade policy, the better.”

Kuehl, the advocacy group director, applauded Smith for his desire to ratify trade deals and for giving Trump leeway to “go out and cut good deals.”

“We’re praying for good deals — and we have to see good deals,” he said. “If we’re having this conversation a month from now, two months from now, and things haven’t changed, it gets harder and harder for farmers. And frankly, that’s why we’re doing this tour.”