America’s Farmers Suffering Under Unnecessary Tariffs

Due to the pandemic and several other factors, America’s farmers are facing near record-high fertilizer costs, supply chain issues, and labor shortages. The last thing they need is government interference in the marketplace that makes the situation worse.

The federal government’s decision last year to impose countervailing duties (“tariffs”) on Moroccan phosphate fertilizer imports blocked farmers’ access to the largest producer in the world and a longstanding, trusted supplier, which has contributed to skyrocketing prices for this key crop input.

Phosphorous is one of the three primary types of fertilizer for farmers and is responsible for the growth of crops such as cotton, corn, soybeans, wheat, fruits, and vegetables. Here in the U.S., we do not produce enough of it to meet demand—up to a third of domestic phosphate fertilizer is typically supplied by imports, with Morocco accounting for about 60 percent of those imports.

According to a Texas A&M University AFPC report on the economic impact of higher fertilizer prices on America’s crop farms, the price of phosphate fertilizer is already up over 200 percent from last year and is projected to continue to rise. This inflationary pressure – which could not have come at a worse time – is crippling farmers’ bottom lines and will hit consumers at the grocery store.

This disruption is having a two-fold effect. It is causing the per-acre cost of growing crops to skyrocket. Wheat, for instance, is expected to cost $29.72 more per acre to produce this year, while rice is expected to cost $62.04 more per acre than last year. Farming is a low-margin industry to begin with, so for farms to stay afloat, increasing costs of production will hit consumers.

Adding insult to injury, the Commerce Department recently made a preliminary decision to move forward with tariffs on urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) fertilizer from Trinidad and Tobago, another trusted supplier of critical fertilizer.

The government cannot continue punishing America’s farmers by artificially distorting the marketplace and alienating longstanding and trusted suppliers. Without a reliable, low-cost supply of critical fertilizer, farmers can’t provide our nation with affordable food. In today’s inflationary environment, this pinch is being felt at grocery store checkout lines across America. The U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission should act now to pull back tariffs on Moroccan fertilizer imports and stop the process of imposing new tariffs on fertilizer from Trinidad and Tobago.