The Des Moines Register’s front page on Saturday warned Iowa taxpayers that President Trump’s newly enacted tariffs on China will cost them $624 million.
“COST OF TARIFFS BEGIN TO ADD UP,” the paper warned an estimated 140,000 readers.
China responded to Trump’s estimated $50 billion in tariffs with a slew of retaliatory measures, including tariffs of soybeans. According to the Register, the U.S. sold $14 billion worth of soybeans to China last year, and Iowa farmers are already feeling the effects of plummeting prices, down 12 percent since March.
“Any tariff or tax put in place will have a significant impact, not only to the U.S. market, but to Iowa’s,” argued Iowa State University economist Chad Hart.
American Soybean Association president John Heisdorffer has previously called on the president to reverse the tariffs for the negative impact they are having on U.S. farmers.
That’s real money lost for farmers,” he said in May. “It is entirely preventable.”
As the clock ticks down toward the 2020 presidential election, more and more eyes will turn toward Iowa, host of the cycle’s first presidential caucuses.
President Trump won the state by less than 10 percent in 2016.
