John Block Reports from Washington

Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the National Corn Growers Association, CropLife America, and Renewable Fuels Association. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now today’s commentary-

This last week President Biden met with European leaders at the Group of 20 Summit in Rome. Here is some good news. We have a deal with Europe to roll back our tariffs on European steel and aluminum. Those tariffs were imposed by President Trump to provide relief to our own industry. Of course, when we put tariffs on Europe, they retaliated with tariffs on our products going to Europe including orange juice, motorcycles, and bourbon whiskey. Europe was scheduled to impose even more tariffs on other products if we could not reach an agreement, but we have an agreement, and it will drive down the cost of our cars and farm machinery.

Our bourbon companies are pleased and so are our farmers that sell the grain to make the
whiskey. And now Europe will buy it. President Biden has wanted to strengthen our relationship
with Europe. Last June the US and EU announced an end to a 17-year dispute we have had over
aircraft subsidies. A month ago, we negotiated a new agreement on global minimum tax. Now
the US and EU should be able to work together more effectively. But the US-EU deal is just a
start. We have tariffs on many other countries that need to be negotiated. We still have duties on
metal coming from South Korea, Japan, and the UK. We have been working with the UK to
solve that trade conflict. But it isn’t done. It takes forever. Don’t forget, China is our biggest
problem. At this point President Biden has not even met with President Xi.

A long list of world leaders is now meeting in Glasgow Scotland to find agreement on what we can do to slow down the climate change. But Chinese President Xi and Russian President Putin are not in attendance. China has more people living in their country than any other country in the world. And China is number two right behind US as an economic power. I’m not optimistic about how much will get done in Glasgow. I am going to the farm in Illinois next week. Hope we can wrap up the harvest. Randy Russell will fill in for me next week while I drive the combine.

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