Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., told Newsmax on Wednesday that he interpreted a remark President Donald Trump made at last night's presidential address to Congress as a reference to the hardships farmers faced during his first term when their exports were affected due to the trade war the United States entered with China in 2018.
During Tuesday's address, Trump said his "tariffs will go on agricultural product coming into America ... starting on April 2."
"It may be a little bit of an adjustment period; we had that before when I made the deal with China," he added. "$50 billion of purchases, and I said just" to the farmers "'bear with me,' and they did. They'll probably have to bear with me again and this will be even better."
"The problem with it was that Biden didn't enforce it."
Meuser told "American Agenda," "I think he's referencing back when we imposed the correction to the Chinese trade gap a few years back in his first term, where for a while there, the agricultural industry was less than positively affected."
According to a report from the Congressional Research Service, "In early 2018" the Trump administration "undertook several trade actions against China (and other countries) that precipitated retaliatory trade actions between the two countries." In the time before that — from 2010 to 2016 — China was the "top destination" for U.S. agriculture exports. Canada grabbed that title in 2017, with Mexico and China being tied for second.
Meuser added, "But that" trade imbalance "changed pretty fast. You know, Katrina, there's an old saying: In order to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs. Well, President Trump's breaking a few eggs in order to make that omelet."
Notably, however, at the end of 2019, the Trump White House reported that it had "authorized a total of $28 billion in aid for farmers who have been subjected to unfair trade practices."
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