President Trump’s tariffs have thrown unease and uncertainty into many regions and industries, and Louisiana is no exception. Michael Deliberto, Agricultural Economist with the LSU AgCenter says it’s important to take politics out of this to realize what the impacts may be. “A lot of our commodities that we export from Louisiana in rice, soybean, corn, beef … really parallels what we export as a nation. 20% of all domestic agricultural production we have in this country goes to foreign markets,” Deliberto emphasizes.
“The agricultural export markets are vital to the financial success of the US farmer and that’s across all crops: from beef cattle to specialty crops. It impacts Louisiana, the Mid-South region, California, you name it,” Deliberto goes on to say.
Roughly half of all US agricultural exports go to markets with whom we have free trade agreements (what many still refer to as NAFTA), Diliberto adds. “About 75% of our total exports last year went to ten markets. Half of that went to only three countries: Canada, Mexico, and China,” adds Diliberto. He goes on to say that rice and corn are primary exports from Louisiana farmers and he expects there to be pains felt because of the tariffs.