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NAWG is asking Trump to protect farmers from trade retaliation

The head of the National Association of Wheat Growers says the group wants to see President Trump follow through on his promise to protect farmers from trade retaliations.

Western Oklahoma farmer Jimmie Musick says instead farmers are facing market losses because of the recently implemented tariffs.

“We hope President Trump is as good of a negotiator as he thinks he is and we’ll see how that turns out,” he says. “But in the meantime we’re not seeing anything done, right now all we’re seeing is challenges for one another.”

He tells Brownfield although the USDA has said it will compensate farmers, he doesn’t think that payments are a long-term solution.

“I don’t know how the administration is going to go about compensating the farmers for the decreases in the prices we’ve seen already because of some of these trade issues,” he says.

Musick says wheat farmers are especially concerned that the other countries are moving forward with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership without the US.

Trump pulled the U.S. out of the TPP in January 2017.

Audio: Jimmie Musick, National Association of Wheat Growers