{"id":200125,"date":"2026-09-08T10:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T10:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/200125\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T10:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T10:33:12","slug":"as-the-us-and-canada-slap-new-tariffs-on-goods-american-farmers-are-stuck-in-the-middle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/200125\/","title":{"rendered":"As the US and Canada slap new tariffs on goods, American farmers are stuck in the middle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want more news about agriculture and the environment?\u00a0Sign up for the Harvest newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for our latest reporting, plus behind-the-scenes exclusives.<\/p>\n

American farmers are bracing for the impact of new tariffs exchanged between the U.S. and Canada on both their supply costs and their sales.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s administration placed\u00a0new 50 percent tariffs<\/a>\u00a0on around $20 billion worth of Canadian goods after trade talks between the two countries fell apart in late August. Canada came back with its own\u00a0list of equivalent import taxes<\/a>\u00a0on American goods that go into effect on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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Amid a barrage of social media posts criticizing the United States\u2019 northern neighbor, Trump claimed Americans\u00a0\u201cdon\u2019t need Canada<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Jayash Paudel, associate professor of economics at the University of Oklahoma, said trade data tells a different story \u2014 especially for farmers and agriculture-related manufacturers.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that Canada bought\u00a0$28 billion in U.S. agricultural goods<\/a>\u00a0last year, making it the second-largest export market behind Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really about winning or losing here,\u201d Paudel said of the latest tariff exchange. \u201cI think ultimately the heat is going to be felt by Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dairy products are a central part of both tariff lists, including everything from finished cheeses to ingredients like whey.<\/p>\n

Karen Gefvert, chief policy officer for Wisconsin-based Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, said the dairy supply chains between the two countries are tightly interwoven. She said both processors and farmers will feel the pain if sales to Canada are slowed or canceled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have more product domestically than we can consume, because those export markets take time (to develop),\u201d said Gefvert, whose cooperative represents farms across the country. \u201cThat backup of the supply chain is real, and that will have a negative effect on price.\u201d<\/p>\n

By comparison, prices are likely to rise for equipment that producers need for farming and processing food, like harvesters and machines used to clean eggs, thanks to tariffs from both countries.<\/p>\n

Canada is a critical producer of steel and aluminum for the U.S., and materials often cross back and forth over the border as they travel through the supply chain, according to Paudel.<\/p>\n

\u201cA tariff can hit the same component more than once,\u201d he said. \u201cIt ends up raising the machinery cost for American farmers, even though the tariff is Canadian.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration previously moved in June to\u00a0lower U.S. tariffs placed on equipment<\/a>\u00a0made from steel, aluminum and copper. But industry experts have expressed doubt that the cut would be enough to keep the cost of farm equipment from increasing.<\/p>\n

\"Fourth-generationFourth-generation soybean farmer Bob Thompson drives his tractor and hay baler through his field in Weidman, Michigan, on June 22, 2026. The president of the Michigan Farmers Union said most farmers have bought used equipment in recent years. Emma George-Griffin\/Harvest Public Media<\/p>\n

Milk prices already down<\/p>\n

The threat of lost sales and lower milk prices comes as the U.S. dairy market is already navigating a long-term price slump.<\/p>\n

Gefvert said dairy producers have\u00a0turned to alternative streams of income<\/a>, like raising beef cattle, to get through the period of weak prices. But she said the industry needs to expand exports, either to existing markets or new ones, in order to turn things around.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of sets us a little bit backward,\u201d she said of the new tariff exchange.<\/p>\n

But some in the dairy industry are hoping the tariff pain could be worth it if the Trump administration is able to hold Canada to their previous commitment to increase export opportunities under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s dairy market is tightly managed through a quota system, and American exporters have long complained that the country has skirted their promises of opening up the market to more U.S. products.<\/p>\n

Krysta Harden, president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, issued\u00a0a statement<\/a>\u00a0before Canada\u2019s tariff announcement, thanking the Trump administration for \u201cstanding up\u201d for the American dairy industry \u201cwho have waited far too long for Canada to live up to its promises.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada has had plenty of chances to fix its unfair market access practices and close the loopholes it\u2019s used to dodge its dairy commitments under USMCA,\u201d Harden said, adding that the new round of tariffs \u201cmakes clear that patience has run out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gefvert agrees that ensuring Canadian officials follow through on their promises of better market access is critical to moving trade talks forward.<\/p>\n

But she said what dairy producers want first and foremost is the return to a predictable marketplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cStability provides certainty to businesses and industry to know where things are at and know that there\u2019s a sure plan on where things are going,\u201d Gefvert said.<\/p>\n

Key source of fertilizer<\/p>\n

Paudel said keeping trade with the country\u2019s northern neighbor open is also critical to maintaining crop farmers\u2019 access to a common fertilizer called potash.<\/p>\n

The potassium-based fertilizer improves crop yields in combination with products containing phosphorus and nitrogen. Canada is the world\u2019s largest producer and exporter of potash, according to industry group The Fertilizer Institute, and approximately 85 percent of potash used in the U.S. comes from Canada.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Press<\/a>\u00a0reports that Ontario Premier Doug Ford has called on the country to consider taxing exports of potash and other critical products as leverage against the U.S. But other Canadian leaders have pushed back on the suggestion.<\/p>\n

While Paudel acknowledged an export tax would likely be a last resort for Canadians, he said the impact would be devastating for American producers who are already paying higher nitrogen fertilizer costs due to the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

He said the most immediate impact of tensions between the two countries is likely the uncertainty it casts as farmers try to make plans for next spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny kind of trade policy uncertainty, it\u2019s going to directly affect agricultural decisions before even any tariff has actually taken effect,\u201d he said. \u201cI also think about postponing equipment purchases and making operating loans, that\u2019s harder to size. These are tangible agricultural decisions that happen at the farm level.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was produced in partnership with\u00a0Harvest Public Media<\/a>, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more news about agriculture and the environment?\u00a0Sign up for the Harvest newsletter\u00a0for our latest reporting, plus behind-the-scenes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-200125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}