White House officials, likely including President Trump, will meet Wednesday with farmers hurt by the trade war between the United States and China.
“We’re having a meeting with the farmers this afternoon,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters on the White House driveway on Wednesday. “We’ll make some further determinations at that point. We want to make sure that the farmers are being protected as we go through the process of negotiating new trade deals.”
The meeting is part of an effort by the Trump administration to placate farmers, who have had to deal with the effects of $250 billion worth of tariffs that Trump placed on Chinese imports, and China’s retaliatory response. Many of the farmers have voiced their dissatisfaction with the administration’s trade policies.
Trump’s administration is working on a plan to provide farmers with another round of aid, in addition to the $8 billion that has already been given to the agriculture industry. The president told reporters last Wednesday that the aid could total $15 billion and would equal “the biggest purchase that China has ever made with our farmers.”
Sanders said Democrats should also work on passing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement that has stalled in Congress.
“It would help if Democrats would actually get USMCA passed, something that would greatly benefit our farmers, instead of sitting on it and trying to slow-roll it because they refuse to give this president a win,” Sanders said.
