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Ag policy professor concerned about U.S. reputation amid trade disruptions

Illinois ag policy professor Jonathan Coppess is concerned the reputation of the U.S. as an exporter is being irreparably harmed.

“I understand the Administration seems to put a lot of value in this strategy of kind of, for lack of a better term, using the tariff policy to ‘bully’ countries into agreeing to whatever terms they want.”

He tells Brownfield the world is watching how the Trump Administration treats trading partners like Mexico.

“We enter this USMCA and then turn around and threaten tariffs and then pull back. So it’s a level of reputational damage that’s hard to quantify what it means. It’s also hard to understand how it feeds a logical strategy to an outcome that is frankly going to help.”

Coppess says India is the latest nation to enter the fray, placing import tariffs on nearly 30 U.S. products June 15th in retaliation to President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs issued 15 months ago.

While not a major importer of American ag products now, Coppess calls India an emerging market but says trade disruptions could stifle that potential.