At this point, like many Americans, you may be terrified when you see the word “tariff” in the news, immediately wondering which country Trump is starting a trade war with or how your budget will be affected. Contrary to Trump’s campaign promises, his erratic trade policy has increased global tension, job loss, and prices for Americans. Meanwhile, agribusiness and corporations have benefited. To protect our communities and our food system, we need drastic change. 

Trump’s volatile trade policy just reinforces decades of U.S. trade policy that puts profit over people, from the 26 years operating under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the current U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). 

We need a trade agenda that explicitly rejects corporate interests and centers U.S. families, farmers, and workers. In May, Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced a blueprint to do just that. It has never been clearer — we need Fair Trade for Working Families.    

Trump’s Trade Policy Puts Corporations Before Farmers and Families

Who is benefiting from the U.S. trade agenda if it isn’t families and farmers? It’s greedy corporations. 

Let’s start with the USMCA, a trade agreement from Trump’s first Administration, which governs a significant portion of trade between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. This agreement promotes corporations overtaking every step of the supply chain. It drives higher costs on inputs farmers need, like fertilizers and equipment, while pushing the prices of their products low by encouraging overproduction, squeezing farmers from both ends. Corporations benefit from each of these problems, while farm debt and bankruptcies rise. 

The past six years have shown that the USCMA needs major reform. Yet, instead of negotiating a better deal for U.S. farmers, Trump has started a trade war with Canada that will cost families and farmers and sow more chaos globally. 

Now, Trump’s second term has been defined by senseless, reckless tariffs. One of the first Trump 2.0 trade moves was instituting sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Corporations passed the tariff costs on to consumers through higher prices, wreaking havoc on the U.S. economy. 

However, in February, the Supreme Court ruled that the Administration lacked authority to impose these tariffs. So far, corporations have received $106.6 billion in IEEPA refunds, with about $60 billion more to be returned. 

While corporations pocket these funds, it’s unlikely they’ll pass them on to the consumers who actually paid the tariff costs. Some of the biggest corporations in the country are seeing million- or even billion-dollar windfalls. Walmart has received almost $2.9 billion in tariff refunds, while Target received $994 million and expects more. 

Since the Supreme Court overturned the IEEPA tariffs, Trump has continued to impose sweeping tariffs that benefit agribusiness and corporations. But now, we have a clear solution to all this chaos — Fair Trade for Working Families. 

Fair Trade For Working Families Will Help U.S. Farmers, Workers, and Families

Rep. DeLauro’s Fair Trade for Working Families (H.Res 1286) blueprint puts the interests of U.S. families, workers, and farmers ahead of billionaire CEOs and corporate interests. 

The Resolution addresses a root cause of high food prices and farm bankruptcies by emphasizing the need to target financial support to small and mid-sized farmers, excluding large producers and processors. It also calls for full enforcement of anti-monopoly laws, which would help break up Big Ag’s power.

Along with evening the playing field between Big Ag and small and mid-sized farmers, the Resolution also calls for fair wage guarantees across crucial job sectors, including food processing. This will help families afford everyday essentials and keep good jobs in our communities. 

Rather than rejecting tariffs outright, this Resolution recognizes targeted tariffs as a valuable tool to support domestic production and discourage labor abuses in countries we buy from. Targeted tariffs can also level the playing field for U.S. industries in global markets by preventing unfairly low-priced imports from undermining U.S. farmers and driving business and jobs abroad.

The Resolution also embraces mandatory country-of-origin labeling (MCOOL) for beef and pork products. This would give consumers more information about where their food comes from while re-establishing a higher-value market for struggling American ranchers. 

MCOOL is particularly important as the Trump Administration recently eased tariffs on more than 300,000 metric tons of beef product imports from unnamed foreign countries. In this “slap in the face” to ranchers, Trump is allowing these imported beef products to be sold at 25% below market value, undercutting U.S. ranchers. 

From Trump’s recent terrible trade moves back to the birth of NAFTA in 1994, Fair Trade for Working Families promises to correct decades of harmful U.S. trade policy. It will strengthen production here in the U.S., curb corporate power, and ensure that farmers and workers receive their fair share of the value they create.

Now Is the Time to Push for a Trade Agenda that Supports American Families and Farmers

So far, trade policy has been used to enrich corporations, and the Trump Administration has taken it a step further by wielding tariffs as a weapon, throwing the world economy into disarray, raising prices for Americans, and bankrupting farmers. But, as the Fair Trade for Working Families agenda highlights, “trade policies should not privilege corporations” — they should prioritize working families and farmers.

Fair Trade for Working Families offers a different approach to trade policy. Together, this agenda targets the underlying imbalance in our food and economic systems, which causes us all to pay more for essentials while farmers and workers struggle to make ends meet. 

While House Resolutions don’t become law, this resolution serves as a blueprint for policies that Congress can pass and a guiding light for how to change our food and trade policy for the better. Our leaders must show their support for people over profit by cosponsoring H.Res. 1286, Fair Trade for Working Families.