Washington, D.C. – Congressman Frank Lucas (OK-03) released the following statement after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will take actions to assist our nation’s farmers and agriculture producers in response to recent trade retaliation and disruption:

“For far too long, China and other foreign trading partners have targeted America’s farmers with discriminatory trade policies. As seen today, President Trump and Secretary Sonny Perdue are committed to protecting our nation’s agriculture producers from predatory trade practices while they weather unjustly retaliatory tariffs imposed by China.

Since his election, President Trump has promised to defend the American farmer while taking on a job that has long been overdue: holding China and other trading partners accountable while negotiating equitable and fair-trade deals. As a farmer and rancher, I know my fellow Oklahomans would prefer trade rather than aid, but the President’s actions are a bright example of how he is committed to assisting our farmers while developing new export markets on behalf of producers. 

Today’s announcement of $16 billion in trade mitigation programs, $14.5 billion of that going directly to producers through the Market Facilitation Program, is not just relief to support our nation’s producers, it’s also an economic tool within the President’s toolbox in order to stabilize domestic markets while he continues to negotiate a fair, long-term deal better benefitting American agriculture.

While House Democrats continue to obstruct a bipartisan trade deal with our neighbors to the North and South, keeping our farmers and ranchers in limbo, I am grateful that our President is continuing his support and defending those producers on every front.”