Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) says tariffs imposed on China, Canada and Mexico are bad for U.S. agriculture.
The U.S. and China are imposing a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion worth of each other’s imports. The duties particularly hurt American products like beef and soybeans. Stabenow, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, says the U.S. must enforce its laws thoughtfully...not through a trade war.
“This has to be done strategically,” says Stabenow. “We should have our trading partners with us. Canada is not a national security issue. These all-out broad efforts that are putting agriculture in the middle, I think, are the wrong approach.”
Stabenow is a key author of the 2018 Farm Bill, which passed the Senate last week by a wide margin. She’s critical of the House version, which narrowly passed.
Stabenow says she hopes Congress will approve a final Farm Bill before the current legislation expires in September.