Iowa secretary of agriculture hopes tariffs won’t last long

RIVERSIDE, Iowa (KCRG) - Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig repeatedly emphasized the importance of trade for Iowa farmers.

He said he hopes the higher tariffs won’t last long because Iowa farmers are already facing a tough economy.

“Especially for crop producers, we may be in one of the toughest economies in 100 years,” Naig said.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig had a bleak message for farmers looking ahead to the rest of the year.

He said lower prices for corn and soybeans were already tough on farmers even before the threat of higher tariffs.

“Prices are declining and have been soft for the last couple of years and we have these persistently high input prices and so farmers are really feeling it on both ends of the equation right now, so that’s very concerning to us as we head into 2025,” Naig said.

By Thursday afternoon the Trump administration announced some tariffs on Mexico and Canada will be delayed until April 2nd, a quick turnaround from the tariff’s enforcement starting on Tuesday.

Naig said the tariffs come with a lot of uncertainty, but he’s optimistic the delays indicate they might not last long.

“Of course that’s part of the challenge here is that things are moving quickly. And so this is where I think it’s legitimate to say we hope that these are short-lived and temporary,” Naig said.

Naig said ideally, the tariffs will be used as bargaining chips that could open the door to long-term profits for farmers, but he’s concerned potential trade wars would make an already challenging market for farmers even worse.

“I have met with many farmers over the last few days who literally will say to me ‘some short term pain for long term gain,’” Naig said.