Trump’s Trade War Is Already Causing Pain in America’s Heartland

Here’s a question: If Donald Trump is the new Mr. America (at least, according to his fan club), then why is he actively working to hurt Americans with his ill-conceived plot to attack allies and trade partners of the United States with his tariffs?

Iowa is this nation’s largest pork producer, and they rely on a healthy trade market, both domestically and internationally, to continue to thrive. What Trump is doing is not helping them, but hurting them.

Growing trade worries have cut pork prices in recent weeks, costing Iowa producers about $560 million, said Dermot Hayes, an Iowa State University economist.

And we’re just getting started.

The initial pain is with the 25 percent tariffs on U.S. pork exports to China, but Mexico is on the table.

Mexico is the largest pork export market, by volume, for the U.S. pork industry. In 2017 Mexico bought $1.5 billion of this nation’s pork products. China bought slightly less, at $1.1 billion in U.S. pork.

The notion of a 20 percent tariff being leveled against U.S. pork hams and shoulders by Mexico, as an answer to Trump’s tariffs on our trade partners, Canada and Mexico, does not bode well for the health of our nation’s economy.

The trade war has begun, and nobody wins a trade war, no matter what Donald Trump [wrongly] believes.

The tariffs are “potentially devastating news for Iowa’s pig farmers and the rural Iowa economy,” said Gregg Hora, president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

According to the association’s figures, 27 percent of all of Iowa and the United States’ production is exported. Those exports account for 40 percent of the total value of each little piggie, in 2017.

“We’ve worked many years, spent a lot of time and money building trade relationships to expand markets in Canada, Mexico and other key economic trading countries,” Hora said.

“We’re concerned about the loss of market share we’ve built up over the years,” he said, adding that he hopes U.S. trade officials “rectify this situation immediately.”

I don’t think President Trump has thought this thing through, nor has he been willing to take the advice of anyone who tells him something other than what he’s already made up his mind about.

Earlier in the  year, Trump lost his economics adviser, Gary Cohn, who strenuously argued against tariffs and the idea of starting a trade war.

What Trump has proposed is steeper than the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, and while Smoot-Hawley didn’t cause the Great Depression, some economists insist it exacerbated an already bad situation.

And Trump wants to drag us back there.

Our nation is doomed, for want of a few Civics and basic Economics classes.

On Thursday, Trump announced his trade war aimed at harming our allies and partners in trade. He has proposed a 25 percent tariff on steel products and 10 percent for aluminum products from Mexico, Canada, and the European Union.

He’s also reportedly even considering a total ban on German luxury cars, such as Audi and Mercedes Benz.

He couldn’t expect them to just take that.

In response, Canada said Friday it would levy tariffs on $12.8 billion in U.S. goods, including steel, aluminum and whiskey.

Europe has proposed targeting U.S. icons such as Harley-Davidson, Levi’s jeans and Kentucky bourbon. Mexico also said it would look at tariffs on steel, blueberries and other products.

The summer months are the peak market time for pork producers, but this summer is looking bleak.

“This should be an extremely profitable time for producers, but that’s no longer the case,” Hayes said.

The pork industry normally would look to China to buy its excess pork, “but China’s now closed,” he said, with its tariffs making U.S. products less competitive.

He said producers had been close to breaking even financially before the tariffs were introduced, but now they’re looking at losses.

Hayes does point out that since 2014, the market has been profitable for pork farmers, so they’re not starting off in the red. He even suggested that even though Iowa farmers will take a hit, this will be helpful for consumers, as far as supply.

Ultimately, you have to wonder if Trump has anyone he’ll listen to, in regards to the dangers of a trade war, or if the nation’s economy is now being controlled by the whims of this oft-bankrupted Manhattan con artist.

At this rate, Mexico, Canada, and Germany will have to allow for a few Trump-branded hotels and golf courses to be built, just to break the stalemate.