JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NDFU) – North Dakota Farmers Union (NDFU) President Mark Watne released the following statement in response to recent remarks by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue that the Trump administration has no plans to extend trade war aid to farmers in 2019, the December trade assistance payments may not be needed and farmers should base next year’s planting decisions on market signals:

“Farmers are being told a lot of things by the Trump administration. We’ve lost our soybean market with China, perhaps permanently, South America is expanding production and export facilities and yet we’re being told to base next year’s planting decisions on market signals. That might make sense if it weren’t for the fact that market signals for all commodities have been skewed by tariffs and trade agreements, some of which aren’t fully implemented. It’s like blindfolding us when we plant next year’s crop, so the administration can tell us the rows look straight. Nothing is straight.

Secretary Perdue needs to understand that corn and soybeans are typical crop rotations in the United States. Planting corn on corn may cause crop disease and most farmers consider rotations a good practice. The Secretary also seems to forget that commodity prices move together and soybeans are dragging all commodity prices down. Currently, with average yield productions, it is possible none of the 30-plus crops grown in North Dakota will show a positive cash flow.

North Dakota farmers did plant for the market last year. Soybeans were one of the few crops that actually showed some opportunity for profit. The administration made the conscious decision to lessen our demand for soybeans by launching a trade war. The Secretary recently said the trade assistance package to compensate farmers for losses was never meant to make farmers whole… and the President promised that farmers would be held harmless. This trade war needs to end soon.”