Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, VITAL BRIEFING—Farm sector concerns about U.S. tariff policies move to political forefront, (Dec 19, 2025)
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins blames the Biden administration for causing the problems that now compels the USDA to make $12 billion in relief payments to the nation’s farmers.
In this edition of Tariffs Insights, Thomas Thompson explores the dicey political terrain underlying the Trump administration’s plan to issue billions of dollars in subsidies to the agricultural sector in the new year under the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program. As Thompson observes, the temporary program has been rolled out in the shadow of a sharp falloff in purchases of U.S. farm products, especially soybeans, as China countered President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods with a 47 percent tariff of its own on soybean and other U.S. crops.
Meanwhile, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins maintain the market disruptions and increased production costs currently plaguing America’s farm economy are attributable to Biden administration policies, which they assert resulted in record inflation, a depleted farm safety net, and delayed disaster assistance.
Thompson also considers the Trump administration likely imposing significant new tariffs on imports of Canadian potash, a key component of fertilizer used by farmers. Currently, Canada is the largest producer of potash, producing 35 times more of the commodity than the U.S., and serves as key supplier. The president has indicated that the U.S. will be imposing “very severe tariffs” on the Canadian potash, explaining that such action is necessary to bolster U.S. production of the product.
To read the article, click Farm sector concerns about U.S. tariff policies move to political forefront.
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