How Tariffs Raise Costs for Farmers, Making Food More Expensive

New York Times

4 days ago

American farmers, ranchers and agricultural industry experts are still sorting through what increased tariffs on dozens of countries will mean for both U.S. farm products and consumers.
But there are a few broad areas where American farmers, and consumers, are likely to see prices rise or products disappear.
The cost of everything farmers use to produce their goods — machinery, fertilizer, herbicides, feed — has been rising, squeezing profitability. That will only pick up speed.
Most of the fertilizer American farmers use is imported. Some of that will continue to face previously announced 10 percent tariffs, while fertilizer that comes from Trinidad & Tobago, a major producer, and a number of countries in the Middle East will see tariffs as high as 30 percent.
Tariffs on steel and aluminum exporting countries will raise costs for things like tractors, fencing and grain bins. Machinery and equipment used in food manufacturing and packaging will be more expensive, too.
The United States imported $212 billion worth of agricultural products last year, according to the Agriculture Department. Some of that can be replaced by an increase in American-grown products, and the new increased tariffs do not meaningfully change the duty rates for the two countries that produced almost $89 billion of those imports, Mexico and Canada, because most food products are covered by a preexisting trade agreement among those countries and the United States.
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