As the US dollar grows stronger vis a vis the Euro, American companies grow worried that despite a stronger dollar???s signal that the American economy is finally showing some anemic signs of life, that this also means that US exports are more expensive than those coming from nations whose economies are Euro-based.
So while those anxieties grow, exporters, especially those in the agricultural sector, are even more anxious at the seemingly bottomless trough of subsidies that certain developing nations are throwing into their goods???subsidies that massively undercut American competitiveness (especially when faced with the never-ending tsunami of regulations that our federal government seems all-too-willing to shackle our businesses with).
According to a new report by DTB Associates (commissioned by some of America???s agricultural exporters), nations like Brazil, China, Thailand, India and Turkey have accounted for global subsidization of agriculture doubling over the past decade! As direct payment subsidies in the United States have been eliminated, and others have been drawn down, China???s, a nation with far lower regulatory and labor costs than the United States, saw fit to massively subsidize rice, corn and wheat production!
More problematic? These nations are all members of the World Trade Organization???and, as such, are supposed to adhere to limitations on the subsidies their industries receive, and report on how they prop up their agribusinesses. But with India having not reported since 2010, China since 2008 and Turkey not having reported in more than a dozen years, clearly something is broken.
Clearly, US trade officials need to be more aggressive in dealing with this???and while disarmament seems to be the watchword of the day, we need to be cautious when it comes to trade. Policies like ???zero-for-zero??? (reintroduced by Rep. Yoho in this Congress) must be considered.
The end result is clear???by massively subsidizing their farming businesses, these nations aim to destroy American farmers. We loathe cronyism. What???s happening abroad is the epitome of it.
