US President Donald Trump has unveiled a $12bn (£9bn) farm aid package aimed at helping farmers hit by low crop prices and the administration's ongoing trade wars.
Most of the money – $11 billion – is earmarked for one-time payments to farmers for row crops under the Agriculture Department's farm assistance program, with another billion reserved for crops not covered by the program.
While farmers generally supported Trump, the agricultural sector suffered during his second term due to trade disputes, especially with China.
Also on Monday, Trump threatened to impose an additional 5% tariff on Mexico for supplying water to American farmers.
The White House says the relief package will help farmers suffering from “years of unfair trade practices” and pent-up inflation.
Trump made the announcement during an event at the White House with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
Also in attendance were members of Congress and farmers who grow corn, cotton, sorghum, soybeans, rice, cattle, wheat and potatoes.
“Maximizing domestic agricultural production is an important part of how we make America affordable again and lower food prices,” Trump said.
Sorghum and soybean farmers have been hit hard by the Trump administration's trade dispute with China, the largest importer of their crops.
The payments are intended to help farmers sell this year's crop and plan for next year's harvest, and to serve as a bridge until administration policies “ensure an improved market environment,” a White House official said.
Rollins said the final $1 billion would be set aside to help officials understand the status of “specialty crops” and ensure the government is “taking all necessary steps to move forward.”
Asked whether further aid packages were planned for farmers, Trump said “it depends” on how the market develops.
“Farmers don't need help,” he said. “They want to have a level playing field.”
The announcement comes as polls show Americans increasingly concerned about rising spending, an issue Trump has sometimes characterized as a “hoax” and a “scam” perpetrated by Democrats.
It also follows complaints from US farmers after they lost access to customers in China as a result of Trump's trade policies.
For example, China is the world's largest market for soybeans and has been a major buyer from the United States in recent decades.
But Beijing effectively closed the door on American soybean imports for months after Trump slapped new tariffs on Chinese goods earlier this year.
Later on Monday, Trump threatened to impose a new 5% tariff on Mexico, accusing it of violating an agreement that gives American farmers access to water.
“This is very unfair to our American farmers who deserve much needed water,” he wrote on social media.
Trump was referring to a more than 80-year-old treaty that provides the United States with water from tributaries of the Rio Grande.
For decades, the United States has accused Mexico of failing to comply with the terms of the agreement.
Mark Legan, a livestock, corn and soybean farmer in Putnam County, Indiana, told the BBC that government assistance would “improve our bottom line.”
As crop prices fell and profitability plummeted, he could have used the funds to replace tractors and other equipment – investments he had put on hold.
During his first administration, Trump also provided relief packages for farmers, including $22 billion in 2019 and another $46 billion in a 2020 package that also included aid to combat the Covid pandemic.
Mr. Legan said he believed the new package would be similar to the one he received during Trump's first term because it would not address persistent price pressures and shrinking export markets.
“The challenge continues to be that we have high production costs,” Mr. Legan said, pointing to record high prices for crop protection chemicals and seeds.
“Although some markets have opened, we are still not back to exporting as much agricultural products as before,” he added.
Another Illinois farmer, Brad Smith, heard news of the $12 billion package while attending the Illinois Farm Bureau convention in Chicago.
“None of us really like it, but we're in no position to give it up,” he said. “We hope we can reduce the need for something like this in the future.”
If he does receive funds from the government, the money will likely be in his hands within three days, he said, before using it to pay off outstanding bills and hopefully buy seeds, chemicals and fertilizers for next year's crop.
Mr Smith said distributing government aid to farmers who needed it most, rather than larger farms, had been a problem in the past.
After an October meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, the White House said China had committed to buying at least 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans by the end of 2025, and then 25 million tons annually over the next three years.
So far, China has purchased only about a quarter of that amount.
Those purchases, however, have accelerated, with Bessent telling CBS, the BBC's US partner, that China is likely to reach that target by the end of February.
Asked why the agriculture aid package was needed, Bessent said that “the Chinese were essentially using our soybean farmers as pawns in trade negotiations.”
“We’re going to build this bridge because … agriculture is the future,” he said. “You should start planning funding next year when things are going really well.”
On Saturday, he signed an executive order establishing “task forces” on food supply chain security and assessing “anti-competitive behavior” in the agricultural sector.
