President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs have had an immediate impact on the ag industry—especially for soybean futures and the livestock sector From Wednesday afternoon when Trump made his announcement to the close of trade on Friday afternoon, May soybeans had fallen by 52 ½ cents, June Live Cattle had lost $9.20, and June Lean Hogs had fallen by $4.97.
“This is something that the pork industry has been on pins and needles about because trade is such a huge part of our economic forecasting,” says Jackie Ponder from Greenwood, who has recently been elected to the board of directors for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC). She’s also co-owner and Chief Legal Council of Bowman Family Holdings, Inc., which manages 23,000 sows, markets 200,000 pigs annually, and farms 4,000 acres of corn and soybeans on farm locations throughout Johnson, Clay, Vigo, Pike, and Greene counties.
“About $66 of every pig sold can be attributed to the fact that we have such a robust export market,” according to Ponder. “With respect to the reciprocal trade agreement, I can say that we were pleasantly surprised that Canada and Mexico were not included in that—so, anything that is covered by the USMCA (U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement) is still zero tariffs, which includes pork, so that was welcome news given that Mexico is our number one trade partner and Canada is close behind.”
She says she and other NPPC members are in a “wait-and-see mode” when it comes to whether the overall move is a good one for the pork industry.
“We’re hoping that these reciprocal tariffs act as a catalyst to some of the countries that have trade barriers against us and that [the U.S. pork industry] has been betting our heads up against,” says Ponder. “I know that [USDA] Secretary Rollins has said that it is one of her priorities to open up markets for us, and to do that, the countries in question need to drop their monetary and non-monetary barriers to U.S. pork.”
Ponder adds that among those countries which have significant trade barriers against U.S. pork and other ag products are China and Vietnam. President Trump has placed a 34-percent reciprocal tariff on China and a 46-percent tariff on all goods coming in from Vietnam.
“China is always going to have tariffs, I think, just given all the other issues that America has with China. U.S. pork has dealt with that over the last number of years and still they do import from the United States. I believe we’ll still have trade with them, but how it’s going to affect it remains to be seen.
“With respect to other nations in Asia, I think that we have more of an opportunity to work through some of the issues. For instance, Vietnam is one area that we really are interested in setting up some trade agreements with. It is a huge consumer of pork. I went with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance last year on a trade trip to Vietnam, and I saw firsthand the need for a trade agreement, because the population there in Vietnam is getting more prosperous. As they get more prosperous, they want better-tasting, better-quality, and higher-safety pork, and the U.S. is the top of that. Right now, they have trade barriers against us, and we’re still trading into there. If they see the tariffs from America on other goods that they sell to us, they may be willing to talk to us about reducing the trade barriers. I think one of the hopes of this Administration is that these reciprocal tariffs are going to get people to quit messing around with United States goods and let them in,” says Ponder.
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