The Trump administration’s trade policies have wreaked havoc on fragile market access for America’s farmers and ranchers. The president has withdrawn the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have clawed open notoriously closed Asian agricultural markets; he has threatened to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, which provides enormous market access for U.S. producers; and he has waged an aggressive trade war on a number of countries, triggering predictable retaliation against American farm exports.

While President Trump’s trade policies have been problematic, the system he inherited is rife with trade-distorting subsidies and other forms of protectionism.