Gov. Wolf derides ‘lack of strategy’ in Trump’s trade approach

"Farmers I've talked to say it actually is a Band-Aid."

• Katie Meyer
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
  
  Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
  
  WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
  
  For more information about Tony May, click here.

 Jimmy May / AP Photo/Bloomsburg Press Enterprise

FILE PHOTO: Daniel Melhorn drives his combine through a field of soybeans in Danville, Pa., Wednesday afternoon Nov. 12, 2008 as three whitetail deer move from one section of corn to another behind the harvester. Melhorn picks about 800 bushels of soybeans every two to three hours.

(Harrisburg) — Governor Tom Wolf is raising the alarm over the impact Chinese tariffs are having on Pennsylvania’s farmers.

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign aluminum and steel may have boosted the domestic steel industry, but China’s retaliatory tariffs on American crops have hurt exports from Pennsylvania farms.

It’s a plight the federal government has acknowledged.

The $12 billion aid package the Trump administration passed to help farmers got mixed reception in the commonwealth. Groups like the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau oppose it.

A bigger aid package is being proposed now. Wolf, a Democrat, said he doesn’t think it’s the right approach.

“Farmers I’ve talked to say it actually is a Band-Aid,” he said. “Why are we doing that? Why don’t we address the underlying, root-cause problem which is we maybe don’t have a fair trading system.”

Wolf said he’d rather Trump lean more on the World Trade Organization.

“It’s not just the tariffs,” he said. “I think there’s chaos surrounding the tariffs. There’s a frustrating lack of strategy on the part of the administration.”

NPR also interviewed Republican Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, who said he thinks it is worth weathering bad times in the agriculture industry if it leads to better trade relationships.

A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.

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