WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Peter Welch, a member of the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Agriculture Committee, joined Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and 17 of their colleagues in expressing great concern about the impact of the Administration’s reckless tariff agenda on our nation’s farmers. In their letter, the Senators pressed U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer for information on how the Administration’s tariff taxes will impact farmers across the nation. 

“Farmers not only have billions of dollars in commodities from last year waiting to be sold, but also have started spring planting and rely on stable markets for their planning. These farmers have made planting decisions and purchased key inputs such as seeds and fertilizer, selected crop insurance coverage, and even began marketing their expected production,” wrote the Senators. “Long before the President’s across-the-board tariff announcement, millions of acres of fall-planted crops like winter wheat were already in the ground, and farmers already have enough uncertainty without tariffs adding more volatility.” 

The Senators continued: “We continue to hear from farmers and businesses across the agricultural supply chain who are bearing the brunt of the negative impacts of the global tariffs announced by President Trump on April 2, 2025, and earlier tariffs on Canada and Mexico. These actions and the resulting retaliation have injected further uncertainty into the farm economy and continue to rattle commodity markets.” 

“As farm organizations and economists have been warning for months, key trading partners will continue to retaliate against U.S. agricultural products as a result of President Trump’s tariffs,” wrote the Senators. “A prolonged trade war now with key trading partners will just further exacerbate those trade shifts. This market share that farmers are losing is the result of more than $15 billion in investments by both taxpayers and the farmers themselves through trade promotion programs over the last 50 years…We have serious concerns about the haphazard approach taken by the Administration to tariffs that cause unnecessary uncertainty and harm for U.S. farmers and their markets.” 

In their letter, the Senators requested answers to the following questions: 

• Did USTR perform any analysis on the impact of the across-the-board tariff policy on farmers prior to implementation? If so, please share that analysis with us. 
  • What do you expect to be the short- and long-term impacts of tariffs on farmers? 
• There have been conflicting reports as to whether tariffs are being used as leverage in trade negotiations or as a long-term structural shift in trade policy. 
  • Can you provide clarity on the goals of the Administration’s trade policy? 
  • If tariffs are being used as leverage in trade negotiations, what are your top agriculture priorities and markets?  What countries are you prioritizing in negotiations, and what is the basis for determining those countries? 
• President Trump indicated that U.S. farmers need to get ready to supply the domestic market instead of the international markets. 
  • Has USTR or have other agencies done analysis to show how production and consumption of crops would need to shift, or what domestic processing would be necessary to accomplish this goal?  For example, there is very limited domestic cotton spinning, weaving or apparel manufacturing. 
  • Significant parts of the agricultural trade imbalance are related to imports of specialty crops, many of which are either grown in tropical regions or imported during the off-season. U.S. farmers will not be able to produce these commodities in the same volume or season. Will consumers need to shift from fresh produce in the off season or be forced to pay a higher price due to the tariffs on these products? 
• Prior to the announcement of the across-the-board tariffs and per-country rates, the USDA announced plans for trade missions to several countries including some with tariffs as high as 46%. 
  • Did USTR consult with USDA on the trade missions or setting tariffs based on targets for opening markets? 

Along with Senators Welch and Klobuchar, the letter was signed by Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.). 

Read and download the full letter here. 

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