Over the past three years, farmers like me across the U.S. have faced record high fertilizer costs made worse by an ill-advised action by the U.S. government that has driven up prices more than 30 percent.
That early 2021 decision, which placed onerous duties on the essential supply of phosphate provided by Morocco to domestic fertilizer manufacturers, has battered the bottom lines of our U.S. farmers and contributed to an increase in what consumers across the country pay for our products.
That, in a nutshell, is the bad news. The good news is that on December 15, the U.S. Department of Commerce and Secretary Gina Raimondo can fix this situation and boost our agriculture sector by reconsidering its decision that imposed a nearly 20 percent tariff on Moroccan phosphate.
The arguments for reversing this damaging action are clear. The duties have not only interrupted crucial supplies, but they have also come at a high financial cost for U.S. farmers. In one study published by the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, a team of economists estimated the countervailing duties imposed on imports from Morocco increased U.S. phosphate fertilizer prices by approximately 34%.
These duties have hit America’s corn growers particularly hard. That’s because, as an essential plant macronutrient for corn, phosphorus makes up about one-fifth of the total fertilizer applied to our products.
Across rural America, farmers have already been grappling with commodity markets rattled by adverse weather conditions, inflation and our often-volatile relationships with big trading partners including China. These tariffs have exacerbated a historically bad situation and infuriated farmers.
Farmers like me were encouraged by a recent decision by Commerce to lower tariffs on the Moroccan-based company supplying the U.S. with phosphate, as part of a required annual review. But that decision was retroactive and largely academic as the company has halted shipping of all but one of its products into the U.S.
Essentially, we got the price of these products down, but they are still in Morocco. We now need certainty that these low duties will stick if we hope to bring increased competition back to the phosphate market in the U.S. The ability of growers to secure much needed crops hangs in the balance.
Commerce can do what’s right on this issue. We hope the agency will consider the evidence, evaluate the damage wrought by these tariffs and proceed to place the wellbeing of corn growers over the financial interest of Mosaic by eliminating the tariffs altogether.
For farmers, the relief will be long overdue. But better late than never.
Harold Wolle, a Minnesota farmer, is president of the National Corn Growers Association.
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