On Wednesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) stated that the president’s tariff policy should be given time and she thinks the interest rate cut will help and “the president needs to get some information out there on the good trade deals that he’s making. People want to hear some positive news. We want to know that the markets are coming. We want to know that we’re going to be able to sell ag. products.”
Fischer stated, “[P]eople in agriculture always get a little nervous when you hear about tariffs. We want to be able to expand markets and to grow our exports. So, we’re looking forward to some good trade deals with the president. We want to see those be forthcoming, learn the details of them. We want to make sure that our manufacturing, as well, is being considered here when we look at the tariffs. It’s a hard situation. A lot of times, the United States, when we’re trying to sell our products, for example, we’re looking at tariffs on ethanol in Brazil that are about 18%. Yet, Brazilian ethanol coming into the United States, it comes in duty-free. We see meat coming in from Australia, about 29 billion dollars a year, and when we look at what we sell to them, that’s 0. So, there [are] a number of issues out there with tariffs, with some non-[tariff] problems that happen as well that these nations retaliate on us on agriculture. So we’re hopeful that, especially, with cutting these interest rates, that’s going to help businesses grow, create jobs. But we want to make sure we also have the markets.”
Host Blake Burman then asked, “Is this tariff policy from the president worth it, is it working?”
Fischer answered, “I think we have to give it time. And we’re going to see, with this rate cut, again, businesses be able to expand, businesses be able to hire. Those folks then are going to be able to also make purchases. But what we’re looking at is a good future here…but, as I said, we want to make sure that we have markets, and the president needs to get some information out there on the good trade deals that he’s making. People want to hear some positive news. We want to know that the markets are coming. We want to know that we’re going to be able to sell ag. products. We’re going to want to know that our manufacturers are going to be able to continue to manufacture in the state of Nebraska. Those are things that we have to continue to push for, work with the administration on, and work with the administration to make sure that it all can happen.”
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