FARIBAULT, Minn. — Governor Tim Walz visited a Rice County farm to put his criticism of President Trump’s trade wars in a real-life context. Walz pointed to “billions of dollars in lost sales and financial strain” in rural communities across Minnesota. The governor was at the sixth-generation Purfeerst spread, which has its usual soybean crop almost harvested but with no buyers at a price that isn’t a net loss. The gigantic Trump tariffs imposed in February on Chinese imports have pushed the Chinese to retaliate and stop buying U.S. soybeans. Instead they’re buying from South America. With Walz was Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union. Wertish called for stability in global trade: “Farmers don’t need to deal with additional instability in an already, challenging market.”
In John Deere setting. Walz sympathized with the Purfreest family. The usually large soybean export market to China suddenly is gone.