China must live by international trade laws, Sen. Chuck Grassley says
U.S. farmers have been on the losing end of the ongoing trade war between China and the United States for a little over a year.
President Trump is promising $15 billion in agricultural aid to help absorb the impact from the tit-for-tat tariff war with China.
“We’re going to take the highest year, the biggest purchase that China has ever made with our farmers, which is about $15 billion, and do something reciprocal to our farmers so our farmers can do well,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tells FOX Business that American farmers welcome the administration's support and strong position against China’s unfair trade practices.
“Our farmers know the theft of intellectual property, trade secrets, particularly manipulating the currency that China does. All of that is very harmful to the entire United States economy,” he said on “Cavuto: Coast-to-Coast” Tuesday.
Grassley said farmers understand the need to hold China accountable for manipulating their currency and making it difficult to import U.S. goods into their country.
“They know that China has to live by the rules of international trade just like the United States and almost the rest of the world does.” The Iowa senator also issued a stern warning to the European Union, stating that Congress will reject any trade deal that omits agriculture.
"[The] EU wants to exclude agriculture from the deal. That’s a nonstarter," the Iowa Republican wrote in an op-ed for Politico. "Members of Congress — Republican and Democrat, House and Senate — have voiced strong opposition to any agreement that doesn’t include agriculture,” Grassley wrote in an op-ed for Politico.
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U.S. domestic exports of agricultural products to the EU totaled $13.5 billion in 2018, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. American imports for consumption of agricultural products from EU countries totaled $23.9 billion in 2018.