INDIANA — President Trump announced more changes could be coming to the roll out of his tariff war. He is now threatening a new 250% tariff on Canadian dairy and lumber products, which he says could help America’s farmers. However some farmers WRTV talked to expressed concerns about all the uncertainty.
“I can't lie. I mean, you're a little bit anxious,” said long-time farmer Rick Persinger.
The generational farmer grows corn and soybeans.
He told WRTV there is never certainty in the industry, but this time things are different.
“This is a little bit unprecedented for me, because I've never really seen our country do what it's doing right now,” explained Persinger.
A day after offering Canada a month pause on implementing, across-the-board 25% tariffs, President Donald Trump has threatened new tariffs as soon as Friday on Canadian lumber and dairy products.
The back and forth on potential changes, Persinger worried about production and making business plans.
“It's very hard to make long term plans when you have this much uncertainty on both ends,” he told WRTV. “It's going to affect our bottom line.”
Economists believe the potential policy changes could also have a major impact on the entire Hoosier state.
Canada and Mexico together are almost 50% of all trade of Indiana in agriculture with the rest of the world. It would really hit us hard,” explained Andreas Hauskrecht, a professor of business economics at IU Kelley School of Business. “We get a lot of our fertilizer from Canada.”
On top of the U.S. imposing tariffs economists worry retaliatory tariffs from our biggest trading partners could hurt farmers too.
Expert at the Indiana Farm Bureau told WRTV the state ships a lot of pork and poultry specially to Mexico along with soybeans and corn.
“I see this really detrimental for the well-being of Indiana,” Hauskrecht explained.
However, some experts believe there could be some long-term benefits for Indiana.
"What we're hoping to find is, you know, some expanded access opportunities, or market opportunities, whether expanded into Mexico, Canada and China, as well as other markets over the around the globe,” said Andy Tauer, the Executive Director Public Policy, Indiana Farm Bureau.
Trump said he's imposing tariffs for multiple reasons including his belief that it will help create manufacturing jobs in the U.S.
The new jobs report out today shows 151,000 new jobs were added to the workforce last month, slightly below expectations.
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