Trade facilitation program payments that were provided to aid farmers affected by tariffs may be having a secondary affect. USDA’s Rod Bain presented some insight from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on the potential for the second round of payments this year.
“The second tranche of payments, I’d like to get them out sooner rather than later. I had actually hoped to do it in October and this is where OMB came back in and asked us to hold back,” said Secretary Perdue.
Secretary Perdue noted that the decision to wait was based on the number of trade deals and negotiations that have continued to develop since the first round of payments was announced earlier in the year. “We’ve got the South Korea deal, we’ve got the Canadian and the Mexican deal done, now we’re moving to EU and Japan.”
The next round of payments that will be coming appear to be having a bigger impact than financially assisting farmers. “The second tranche is there to continue to incentivize our negotiators to get trade done and resolved,” Secretary Perdue said.
The Dual Impacts of Proposed Ag Trade Disruption Payments
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