South Dakota AG producers react to tariff negotiations

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - As tariff talks continue to be a dynamic situation, KOTA Territory News has gathered reaction.

Scott Vanderwal, president of The South Dakota Farm Bureau Federation, said Tuesday lots of agricultural commodities have taken a negative hit. The federation is urging the Trump administration to consider the negative effects of retaliatory tariffs from other countries. Vanderwal says the federation’s members understand the goal of the tariffs to reduce illegal drugs coming across the border. However, he says he hopes the effects aren’t long-lasting.

Eric Jennings with the South Dakota Cattleman’s Association says his group is backing the president’s use of tariffs to stop the flow of illicit drugs into the country.

“Our country’s got some issues, national security issues, certainly some substance issues with fentanyl and there’s a lot of other drugs that are coming across our borders, and we need to address that,” Jennings said.

Jennings says the timing of the trade talks is happening at a less impactful time for cattle producers in Western South Dakota, as many ranchers won’t be selling their cattle until fall. He also says cattle prices are at a high point.

“And so we can probably absorb a little bit of a disruption right now,” Jennings explained.

Jennings says he anticipates U.S. producers to come out ahead at the end of the tariff talks.

Kevin Deinert, president of the South Dakota Soybean Association, says the state’s soybean industry has concerns about losing access to China.

“The old saying a few years ago was two out of every rows, two out of every three soybean rows goes to China, so for our area for South Dakota it’s a very large export market,” Deinert said.

Governor Rhoden told reporters last week he was going to remain engaged with the Trump administration when questioned on retaliatory tariffs announced by Canada.

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