This week, Senator Raphael Warnock challenged a claim by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins that grocery prices and inflation are declining thanks to President Trump’s tariff and trade policies. Here’s a portion of that exchange:
“Georgia farmers are telling me that they continue to struggle with high costs, costs exacerbated by President Trump's war in Iran, and his tariffs—which is a tax on all of us on virtually everything," according to Senator Warnock. "Secretary Rollins, last week the administration did lower its tariffs on farm equipment by 10%. I think that's a good move—it's a start. I'm afraid that it might be a little too late and a bit too little. Was this action an acknowledgement by the Trump administration that its tariffs have increased the cost of farming?”
“So, I really appreciate the question," Secretary Rollins said. "I think the President, as our chief negotiator, is constantly tweaking. But what I will say, and I realize you and I could have a much longer conversation about this, that the very tariffs that you're speaking of have instituted or led to the 19 new trade deals that we've implemented. We're going to have higher corn exports, higher ethanol exports, higher tree nut exports, higher dairy exports than practically in American history. So, we're cutting that $50 billion agricultural trade deficit in half that we inherited a year and a half ago. And for the farmers, nothing's more important than that market access.”
Senator Warnock said the increases are affecting all Georgians.
“But it's not just farmers that I'm concerned about, I'm also concerned about Georgia families. According to the USDA, grocery costs increased about 3% in the last year and expected to increase by another 3.2% this year."
The remarks came during a Senate Agricultural Committee hearing on Wednesday.
