Trump to Approve $16 Billion More in Farmer Trade-War Aid

The Trump Administration will provide $16 billion in a new round of farm-aid payments to compensate for losses from the U.S. trade war with China, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Thursday.

Perdue told Fox Business Network that China is targeting Donald Trump’s political base with its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural products and that the president won’t let farmers “bear the brunt of that.” Trump is scheduled to meet with farm leaders at 3:15 p.m. Washington time.

Soybean futures declined after the interview. The government payments would entice U.S. farmers to plant more beans, said Charlie Sernatinger, global head of grain futures at ED&F Man Capital Markets in Chicago. “If they get paid based on this autumn’s production, they will plant the beans,” he said by phone.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa has criticized aid payment levels reported by Bloomberg earlier in the week as inadequate for corn farmers. When Perdue was asked after the Fox Business interview whether growers of the crop would be satisfied with their aid payments, he responded, “I think they will be.”

As of earlier this week, the administration was considering payments to soybean growers of $2 per bushel, and 4 cents per bushel to corn farmers, based on the acreage sowed this year, according to two people familiar with the plan.