U.S. set to use tariff funds to address high fertilizer prices
Agri-Pulse’s Kim Chipman reported that “the Trump administration is poised to dip into tens of billions of dollars from tariffs and trade deal renegotiations to strengthen domestic fertilizer supplies, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told lawmakers.”
“We’ve got to invest in more infrastructure,” Rollins said during a House Appropriations subcommittee budget hearing on Thursday. “We’ve got to reshore fertilizer back to America,” she said, according to Chipman’s reporting.
Rollins said she hosted a 90-minute meeting on last week with executives of four top fertilizer companies and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett.
“They flew in from all over the world to sit down with us and really talk this through,” she said, adding that she’s hopeful the administration will be ready to announce a full plan next week.
“We’re going to start deploying some of those [trade] resources to begin to build, and they won’t come online for 12 to 18 months, but we’ve got to start moving back in that direction,” Rollins said in response to a question from Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa.”
FarmWeekNow’s Tammie Sloup said in reporting, “Rollins projected fertilizer costs would go back down after the war ends, but the federal government is working with fertilizer companies in the meantime to help address cost challenges. She also pointed to the Trump administration’s 60-day waiver on enforcement of the Jones Act, which requires vessels transporting goods between U.S. ports to be U.S. built and owned, as well as allowing more Venezuelan fertilizer to be imported into the U.S.”
“She emphasized a handful of companies have ‘basically taken over the market in all of the inputs,’ resulting in a lack of competition,” Sloup reported. “‘That’s what we’ve got to really solve for,’ she said, adding she and other cabinet members met Wednesday at USDA with four top fertilizer companies. Rollins added she’s on the phone daily with other fertilizer companies from around the country.”
“‘USDA has identified some funding to begin investing, to move some more fertilizer out more quickly. So we are on it, but I don’t want to over promise. These prices will not come down anytime in the next couple of days or weeks. It may take us a couple months to get them back down, but we’re working on it,’ she said,” according to Sloup’s reporting.
»Related: Viewpoint: Multiple facets converging in ag’s fertilizer crisis
The expert of this article was republished here with permission from the University of Illinois Farm Policy News. It was written by Ryan Hanrahan, the Farm Policy News editor and social media director for the farmdoc project. He has previously worked in local news, primarily as an agriculture journalist in the American West. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri (B.S. Science & Agricultural Journalism).
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