© 2021
In touch with the world ... at home on the High Plains
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Trump’s Escalating Trade Wars Will Hurt Farmers In The Panhandles

Public Domain

The Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles will likely soon suffer under the effects of Donald Trump’s various trade wars.

As The Dallas Morning News reports, the trade war will leave no part of Texas untouched. The Lone Star State has a greater number of exports hit by payback tariffs than any other state.

But it’s grain sorghum and cotton—much of which is grown in the panhandles—which stand to be hit the hardest. Texas sends almost a billion dollars’ worth of those two products alone to China.

The president’s protectionist policies have complicated his popularity in the heartland, as retaliatory tariffs hit farmers, ranchers, and producers in the pocketbooks. As international tensions rise and potential profits plummet, Texas and Oklahoma business leaders have expressed fear that Trump’s gambits will cost jobs and hurt export markets.