Josh Turek on Free Trade

Our farmers need open trade; tariffs have hurt Iowans

Hinson: We need more markets. What we don't need is an unlevel playing field. What's important is we are actually holding bad trade partners accountable when they are breaking the rules and not playing fair.

Turek: The tariffs and the war in Iran has hurt Iowa more than any other state. Our farmers need, more than any other group, need open trade, need open markets. And what the tariffs have done is it's led to a decimation of markets. You look at the administration giving $20 billion to Argentina. Meanwhile the Chinese are buying their soybean farmers. What about our Iowa soybean farmers against our primary trading partners Canada, Mexico and China? The tariffs have really really hurt Iowans. We certainly need strategic tariffs and tariffs to protect American jobs and to protect American manufacturing, but not off the backs of the agricultural industry and not off the backs of small family farms.

End the chaotic tariffs sending farms toward a crisis

• End the chaotic tariffs that are sending farms toward a 1980s-style farm crisis.
• Pass Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling legislation.
• Crack down on monopolies in agribusiness and meatpacking.
• Stop giving bailouts to foreign countries that make it harder for our farmers to compete.

Founders intended tariff power with the legislature