Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks to reporters outside the White House.
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00:00What do you expect the impact on U.S. farmers to be from the Chinese 84% tariff in position?
00:07Well, we're looking at that every day.
00:09We have teams across the government, whether it's USTR or Commerce or Treasury, of course, USDA.
00:15We've got teams that are literally hour by hour watching that.
00:19This president has a vision of realigning the American economy to ensure that we are putting America first.
00:25I know y'all have heard me say this, but I think it's worth saying again that for decades we have lived under a tariff regime.
00:32It just hasn't been an America, an American tariff regime.
00:36And this president has been resolute that he is going to fix it.
00:40So while we're in this period of uncertainty, and yesterday obviously was a great day.
00:45Today we're a little bit down.
00:47We'll see a little bit more movement and adjustment by the market as we move forward.
00:51But for the farmers and the ranchers, I spent time with two big groups last night.
00:56I'm on the phone constantly.
00:58I was on with 10 governors right before I came over to the White House this morning on a Zoom.
01:02We are in constant communication for our row crop farmers, especially for our wheat and sorghum, et cetera.
01:07We believe that these changes will, in short order, create unlimited and unprecedented prosperity for these farmers.
01:15But if not, the USDA is there in the short term to ensure, just as we did in term one, that our farmers are taken care of.
01:23How surprised were you by the cause of tariffs?
01:27You know, I wasn't surprised.
01:29I think that the president is extremely involved and very intentional in what he says, what meetings he takes, what phone calls he has.
01:41And the conversations were ongoing.
01:44And you saw yesterday what happened.
01:46And it was a good day.
01:48But again, it's just one more step toward that prosperity and that realignment of the American economy.
01:54I'm sure we'll talk about it at length in the cabinet meeting in just a minute.
01:58Yes, sir.
01:58Well, it's going to take a little bit of time to fully understand the implications, especially for our wheat, sorghum, corn, soybean, et cetera, that they're just in planting season right now.
02:24We'll move towards the end of the summer and into the fall.
02:27But we're literally looking at it every single day.
02:31And so I don't have an answer because we just don't know what's going to happen.
02:34But if anything, I hope you all have seen that this administration moves at light speed and working seven days a week, 20 hours a day.
02:44This will hopefully move quickly if necessary.
02:48Hopefully not, but if necessary.
02:50But maybe potentially in harvest time like later this year.
02:53That is when I think we'll have the best idea of exactly what the consequences look like.
02:58Yeah, thank you.
02:59I've talked to farmers who are worried about losing market share and they point to 2018 as an example.
03:04What would you say to their concern?
03:06Well, first of all, let's fully understand that the 2018-2019 deal with China was a really good deal.
03:14But what happened is we didn't stay for that contiguous second term.
03:18And the Biden administration did not hold China accountable to what it was that was in the deal.
03:24So there are some mitigating factors there that I think are really important for everyone to understand.
03:28But having said that, let me shift to today.
03:30This is a completely different environment, a completely different set of facts and circumstances that, again, ultimately we believe will have a massive positive effect for all of our farmers.
03:42You combine that with the fact that under Joe Biden, inputs went up 30 percent for our farmers and ranchers.
03:48I think that was across the board perhaps, but especially in ag where I'm looking at a time where our trade deficits increased $49 billion.
03:54So the cost for the farmers went up.
03:57Our goods were not being sold around the world as they were under Trump one.
04:01And I think we announced this in the next few months I'll be in Vietnam, in India, in Brazil, in Peru, in Japan as we're continuing to open up those markets.
04:09So I don't think for a lot of reasons we'll see that again.
04:11Yes, sir.
04:12One more.
04:13And prices, too, wouldn't mind just weighing in.
04:15What do you say to American consumers?
04:17The wholesale prices are down, but we're still not seeing it in a grocery store.
04:21Well, so today, I think it was today, maybe in the last hour or so, we saw inflation decrease just a little bit, but a decrease for the first time since COVID.
04:31And that's an incredible story to tell.
04:33The president's idea of tax cuts and deregulation and tariff reorganization and realignment of the economy.
04:40The markets are beginning to adjust to that.
04:42We're seeing a decrease in airfare, a decrease in used cars, a decrease in gasoline.
04:47The wholesale prices of eggs, to your question, have gone way down.
04:51I think we're down, depending on who you're looking at, what numbers, between 50% and 65%.
04:56We've said all along the retail prices will just take a while to catch up.
05:00We're also moving into the Super Bowl of eggs, which is Easter.
05:03So from the beginning, I've said this is sort of the high price for retail for eggs.
05:07But we feel very confident that will continue to come back down.
