In the wake of Hurricane Helene’s devastation, Georgia farmers could face another challenge: President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed sweeping tariffs.
Trump has proposed levying 10% tariffs on imports from across the globe and even higher tariffs on Chinese goods. Republicans and many farmers believe the president-elect could bolster Georgia’s leading economic driver, but economists say the tariff proposals could put Georgia agribusiness in the middle of a trade war.
That’s what happened in 2018 and 2019 when Trump imposed tariffs as a negotiation tool against China. In return, China retaliated with tariffs on U.S. goods, including agricultural exports.
To offset losses from those tariffs, the federal government handed out billions of dollars to U.S. farmers. Georgia farmers were paid about $373 million in return through a special fund from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Tom Smith, a professor at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, said another round of tariffs could cause similar economic disruption.
“If Trump imposes the tariffs he says he’s going to, we’ll have a trade war, and who’s going to suffer? A bunch of farmers,” he said.
If so, that would come in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which devastated sectors of Georgia’s agricultural industry, causing about $6.5 billion in damage, according to preliminary calculations by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, the Georgia Forestry Commission and the University of Georgia.
Georgia leads the country in pecan production, a crop hit particularly hard by Helene but also a major export for the state internationally.
“I don’t know where we’re going, but I do think that the agriculture situation in Georgia is in trouble,” said Garland Nessmith, a Bullock County pecan farmer.
For the 80-year-old farmer, Trump’s tariffs are not as much of a concern as he grapples with making his way out of the rubble of Helene. He said this year he couldn’t salvage the devastation caused to his pecan crop.
“Hurricane season is just about over this year, but guess what? You got next year for it to come again,” Nessmith said. “For some reason, since 2016, we’ve had a lot of hurricane damage to our crops here in Georgia.”
Leaders from both parties have pressured Congress to deliver additional federal relief for Georgians devastated by Helene. And last week, Georgia’s Department of Agriculture announced a relief program to aid farmers with storm-related damage.
But Nessmith said pecan producers who used to benefit from trade deals with China now compete with farmers from Mexico and South America.
State Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell, said environmental regulations make it difficult for American producers to keep up with foreign competition on an international stage. Goodman, the chair of the Senate’s Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee, said he expects the long-term gain of a Trump presidency for Georgia agriculture to outweigh the short-term pain that Trump’s proposed tariffs may cause. He and Georgia Agricultural Commissioner Tyler Harper said Trump’s proposed rollback of regulations could give the U.S. a more competitive edge in agriculture internationally.
“When it comes to tariffs, I think it’s a conversation that we need to have as a way to level the playing field for American agriculture, American industry, American business to ensure that we are able to compete on a global scale,” Harper said.
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