Canada announced a final list of items targeted for retaliation over U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, hitting U.S. beef, agricultural chemicals and whiskey, as well as a large number of steel and aluminum products. The $12.6 billion of tariffs will go into effect on July 1. Items will be subject to taxes of 10% or 25%. [node:read-more:link]
The Senate easily passed its farm bill by a vote of 86-11, clearing the way for a conference committee to reconcile differences with the House's version of the sweeping agriculture and nutrition legislation. The Senate's bipartisan support of the $867 billion bill, coming a week after the House passed its partisan measure by a margin of just two votes, gives Congress some leeway in its effort to deliver legislation to President Donald Trump to sign before the current farm bill expires on Sept. 30. [node:read-more:link]
ouse Republicans’ legislative attempt to find consensus within their own party on the divisive issue of immigration failed on the floor Wednesday, with the chamber overwhelmingly rejecting their so-called compromise bill, 121-301. The compromise bill was negotiated by members representing all sides of the various factions in the GOP Conference and Republican leaders in recent weeks. But some of the negotiators had maintained concerns throughout the process. [node:read-more:link]
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is conducting a survey to “help enhance the creation and delivery of information and resources” for small and very small meat and poultry processing and slaughter establishments, the agency said in a news release. FSIS is emailing a survey link to small and very small establishments that slaughter or process livestock or poultry. Owners will have about 30 days to complete the survey. [node:read-more:link]
Chinese customers are holding back on some orders of alfalfa from Washington’s Columbia Basin as they wait to see what happens with tariffs, a major U.S. hay exporter says. [node:read-more:link]
A Florida boat builder absorbs $4 million in lost business and expects more pain. An Ohio pork producer is losing access to a vital export market and fears the damage will last years. A motorcycle shop near Cologne, Germany, wonders if it even has a future. A brawl that the United States provoked with its closest trading partners is starting to draw blood. On Friday, the European Union began imposing tariffs on $3.4 billion in American goods — from whiskey and motorcycles to peanuts and cranberries — to retaliate for President Donald Trump’s own tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. [node:read-more:link]
U.S. farmers are already hurting, thanks to Mexico’s retaliatory tariffs for U.S. import taxes on steel and aluminum, but the pain is expected to increase sharply in the weeks and months to come. U.S. exporters have become accustomed to the zero duties under the North American Free Trade Agreement, but the new tariffs are still equal to or below what Mexico charges most other major suppliers. That means the U.S. can still compete thanks to the closeness of the two countries, both geographically and in shared supply channels.“Trade is not going to stop right away,” said one U.S. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reconsidering its plan to require that pure maple syrup and honey be labeled as containing added sugars. Maple syrup producers had rallied against the plan, saying the nutrition labels updates were misleading, illogical and confusing and could hurt their industries. No sugar is added to pure maple syrup or honey. However, the FDA's update would have defined maple syrup as an added sugar, both when used as a sweetener in the processing of other foods and as a stand-alone product. Stay tuned to see what the new proposal brings. [node:read-more:link]
Round two of President Donald Trump's trade assault on Beijing is expected by the end of this week, when the Treasury Department rolls out new restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States and on the technologies that can be sold to China.After an internal debate, the administration appears to have settled on more aggressive restrictions favored by U.S. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a massive Republican farm bill with changes to the government food stamps program that make it unlikely to become law in this form. The Senate is considering its own farm bill with no major changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) used by more than 40 million Americans, or about 12 percent of the total U.S. [node:read-more:link]
