Questions and answers on tariffs and trade

Illinois Farm Bureau President Brian Duncan joined RFD Radio Thursday to discuss the Trump administration’s newly enacted reciprocal tariffs on more than two dozen countries across the globe.

President Donald Trump announced the tariffs Wednesday.

In this interview with RFD Radio’s DeLoss Jahnke, Duncan said he’s been “reading every news article I can get my hands on to try to discern the motive and the methodology — what the end goal ultimately is and how this will actually affect our members.”

The following has been lightly edited for clarity.

DUNCAN: I think right now, as I read, there’s a lot more questions than answers about something this complex, how this program can even be administered. What is the timeline for administration? Again, I read conflicting accounts. How will our trading partners respond? I’ve seen different levels of response there.

Obviously, this is a very important — and that’s probably understating it — moment in time for Illinois agriculture as we consider all the work and energy we have put into developing foreign markets, how many individual farmers’ checkoff dollars have been invested into these foreign markets and trying to gain access [to them] and how [IFB] have been very supportive of free trade agreements.

Here’s what I can tell you: We have been vocal. I have been on the Hill in Washington, D.C., within the last month talking to congressional representatives and anybody who would listen about how important trade is to Illinois agriculture. We had a very engaged group of farmer-leaders who were out last week doing the same thing. We’ve all met with the Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, and expressed to her how concerning some of these actions may be for us.

As we think through and analyze and watch countries’ responses to these actions, our members need to know we continue to be a strong, vocal advocate for trade.

JAHNKE: Some issues don’t get solved overnight and this is certainly going to be one of them. I assume that’s also part of the message: Whether this takes six months, a year, two years, you’ll certainly be engaged throughout the process.

DUNCAN: Yes. That’s one of the messages to the president: If you’re heading down this path, let’s see how quickly we can resolve these issues.

We have a very strict policy — one that was just passed in January by the delegates at the American Farm Bureau Annual Meeting that says we oppose tariffs and regulations that would limit supply or increase the prices of agricultural production inputs. I am afraid, as we look at these tariffs, that will be one of the end results — parts, crop production inputs, all of these things are going to get more expensive.

Our members know the unenviable position agriculture is in. We are price-takers. We cannot simply pass these increased expenses onto our end user. As we think about the motivation here, we want to support a level playing field. We want secure borders; we want legal immigration and are certainly very concerned about the fentanyl trade coming into this country.

But we also have policy that says the threat of unilateral sanctions or other restrictions adversely affecting markets is an inappropriate tool in the implementation of foreign policy. I’ve spent a lot of this morning combing through both Illinois Farm Bureau policy and [American Farm Bureau Federation] policy as well, trying to make sense of this and find a pathway forward for us as an organization — as our members would expect — to be a very vocal advocate on their behalf for a brighter economic future.

JAHNKE: Are you concerned this might provide even more of a green light — I think of Brazil, in particular but other ag countries — for similar commodities, if our cost environment goes up? That might incentive them even further to grow and look for different partnerships.

DUNCAN: I think we’ve seen that in the last round of trade disruption we had. It’s very hard. Once you get a foothold in the market, it’s hard, and then once you lose that foothold, it’s hard to get back. One thing that is very obvious to all of us, no matter what side of the political spectrum you fall on here, [is that] we produce way more than we can consume in this country.

I’m still an independent pork producer and [farm] row crops and feed some cattle and I think north of 30% of my farm income is derived as a direct result of trade. To see some uncertainty with that percentage of the income from my farm and our members from across the state — this is a moment in time that makes an impact.

I’ve been on the phone this morning with several members of our team, with our economics group. They’ve been communicating with AFBF as well as to what a pathway forward looks like, recognizing the challenges and the opportunities. There’s challenges and opportunities. We see big challenges here. Let’s see if we can discern some opportunities and move on those, as well as respond to the challenges.

JAHNKE: Final message to the members is?

DUNCAN: My message to the members is: This is why we are here: A cord of many strands is not easily broken and a chorus with many voices is not easily ignored.

We will be in communication with our partners on the commodity groups, with other state Farm Bureaus and with AFBF as we hopefully get on the same page in the hymnal and sing the same song in a very impactful and thoughtful way.

We’ve been very careful. We don’t want to react to every tweet, or to every trial balloon that has been floated. We want to be measured, thoughtful, intelligent and policy-driven in how we deal with the events of the day and that is the course we are on.

I’m sure this is going to be a very busy day as we develop our strategy, as we talk to our friends in Congress, our friends in the [Trump] administration, as we remind maybe even Secretary Rollins of some of the promises she’s made.

As far as mitigation, I want the membership to know we have been contemplating what our responses would be. We’ve run different scenarios ahead of Liberation Day, but we needed to see exactly what the proposals were.

Now, we can formulate our response and hopefully come up with a proactive plan of action to move forward for the best interests of Illinois farmers, for our members.

I want our members to be assured we are working very diligently in this space and we will be communicating as actively and as aggressively as we can with you all to let you know what we're doing, what solutions we may see, and what opportunities we may be driving for on [your] behalf.

It is an interesting day, but every day I get to sit in this chair and represent and work on behalf of Illinois farmers is a day I feel privileged beyond measure.