President Trump’s revolutionary trade deal with Japan is a game-changer for Iowa farmers. Thanks to the new agreement, American agriculture — especially including Iowa corn farmers and others from our great state — will now have greater access to this growing marketplace regardless of China’s ongoing efforts to undermine the U.S. economy.
While President Trump’s America First trade policy has already done wonders for workers across the Hawkeye State, China has been lashing out against American farmers in a desperate bid to put political pressure on the President by inflicting economic pain on some of his most fervent supporters. The communist regime is targeting U.S. agriculture in a last-gasp bid to avoid having to compete with American workers and businesses on even terms
At the same time, the Chinese economy is reeling from the strategic counter-tariffs the President has imposed on Chinese-made goods in response to China’s decades of abusive trade practices.
The new bilateral trade deal with Japan will protect our farmers by giving them an alternative market for the agricultural exports that Beijing had previously promised to purchase.
“We’ve been working on a deal with Japan for a long time,” President Trump said during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “It involves agriculture and e-commerce and many other things. It’s a very big transaction … billions and billions of dollars.”
The impact of this trade deal on our economy can not be overstated — 85 percent of Iowa’s geography is currently used for farming. Iowa is the leading producer of both corn and eggs in the U.S., and Iowa farmers raise one-third of the nation’s hogs.
All told, some 87,000 farms and 129,000 farm operators are based in the great state of Iowa, making agriculture the backbone of our state’s economy. The Iowa Farm Bureau further estimates that the industry pumps a whopping $112.2 billion a year into Iowa’s economy while supporting 1 out of every 5 jobs in the state.
China knows that it can’t match the President’s counter-tariffs evenly, so it has focused its attention on the agriculture sector, hoping to weaken Trump’s support in Iowa and other agricultural states. Earlier this month, despite its promises to buy more U.S. agricultural products, Beijing announced that Chinese companies would no longer purchase any U.S. agricultural products — a move that could have potentially harmed American farmers.
But President Trump was clearly prepared to counter China’s strategy by finding a brand new market for American agriculture in Asia.
“[W]e have excess corn in various parts of our country … because China did not do what they said they were going to do,” the Presidentexplained, adding that Japan will be “buying all of that corn” from U.S. farmers. “This is a tremendous deal for the United States,” he noted. “It’s a really tremendous deal for our farmers and agricultural ranchers…”
Remarkably, China seems to have already admitted defeat — shortly after unveiling the new agreement with Japan, President Trump revealed that Beijing had reached out to say it is ready to resume productive trade negotiations with Washington.
When Donald Trump was elected, he promised to protect the interests of every American worker, and he has proven his deftness and adaptability to always find a way to succeed for our nation. His new trade deal with Japan will accomplish exactly that by ensuring that Iowa farmers are protected from Beijing’s nefarious intentions, as well as force China back to the negotiating table for even greater long-term solutions for farmers and ranchers spread all across the fruited plains of Iowa.