Trump not looking out for farmers

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor,

     President Trump’s ego-driven trade war puts Iowa farmers and all Americans who depend upon them in great economic peril. He is gambling with the lives of millions of farm families, and that is unacceptably reckless.

     As a regular American running for President and someone with southern Minnesota farm family roots, I understand the frustration many of us feel towards the unfair trade practices of other nations. What progress we have made over the years at advancing free and fair trade has come at a maddeningly slow pace, trying all our patience.

     But America’s policy of gradually reducing barriers to trade has been carefully crafted and advanced by administrations of both parties for decades for a good reason. Trade wars hurt everyone.

     If we want consumers around the world to buy our products, we must continue to be patient with their efforts to develop healthy, mature economies. The United States employed import tariffs up until WWII to raise revenues and protect our economy in its infancy, and other nations are simply attempting to emulate our successful model.

     Our policies aimed at the gradual reduction of trade barriers work slowly, but they do work. Further, in those instances where barriers are truly illegitimate, we have other tools and means to address them short of a full-blown trade war.

     But President Trump prefers bully tactics, unable to see that the slow and steady approach is best for America. Sacrificing our farmers in the name of “America First” is a contradiction in terms. As President, I will remember that, and you can count on me to look out for the people who have always made America great – Iowans and other regular Americans just like you.

James Peppe

Republican Candidate for President

 

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