Capital Update – For the Week Ending April 4, 2025

Agriculture Secretary Rollins Visits with NPPC Board Members

What happened: U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins participated in a tour of Iowa agriculture operations and met with NPPC President-elect Rob Brenneman and newly installed board member Trish Cook, both Iowa pork producers.

Rollins was joined by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and the state’s Agriculture Secretary, Mike Naig, as well as congressional Republican Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA).

The group’s hog farm visit in Waukee was to the Manning Family Farm. In addition to meeting with NPPC leadership, the legislators met with the farm’s owners, Iowa Pork Producers Association President Aaron Juergens and Past President Matt Gent, discussing among other topics California Proposition 12, farm labor, plant processing line speeds, and trade.

On the latter, Rollins told reporters USDA will help farmers affected by President Trump’s tariffs on foreign imports, employing tactics similar to USDA’s Market Facilitation Program used in 2018 after China put duties on U.S. products in response to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum. U.S. reciprocal tariffs are set to take effect April 5.

Why it matters: Rollins oversees USDA’s various agricultural programs, including ones related to conservation, farm programs, food safety, foreign animal disease preparation and prevention, marketing and regulatory issues, natural resources, rural development, and trade. She also will help shape the next five-year Farm Bill.

NPPC board member Trish Cook (far right) and NPPC President-elect Rob Brenneman (fifth from left) raise pork industry priorities with (left to right): Rep. Zach Nunn, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

U.S. Imposes Additional Tariffs on Countries

What happened: President Trump signed an executive order to place reciprocal tariffs on goods from countries that have significant duties on U.S. imports.

In a victory for U.S. pork producers, several vitamins to optimize swine health, productivity, and wellbeing are exempt from the tariffs, including vitamins A, B1 (Thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B5 (D or DL-Pantothenic acid), B6 (Pyridoxine), B12 (Cyanocobalamin), and E. Also exempt are choline and its salts, niacin, and niacinamide. NPPC Past President and Minnesota pork producer Lori Stevermer highlighted this in her testimonies before the Senate and House Agriculture Committees.

Effective April 5, the U.S. will implement a 10% tariff on all countries, and countries that the U.S. has the largest trade deficits with will face an individualized reciprocal tariff starting on April 9. The United States will charge approximately half of the amount each nation’s trade barriers cost U.S. products, with a minimum tariff of 10%. Annex I of the executive order lists the tariff rates which take effect on April 9, all other countries will continue to face the original 10% tariff rate.

The reciprocal tariffs follow the early March duties of 25% on products from Canada and Mexico (no duties on goods that qualify under USMCA, excluding autos, steel, and aluminum) and the doubling of an existing 10% tariff on Chinese goods in response to drugs being smuggled into the United States from and persistent trade deficits with those nations.

While the tariffs could put an economic strain on American agriculture, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently said the U.S. Department of Agriculture is formulating a relief plan for farmers to address any hardship.

NPPC’s take: NPPC vigorously advocates for trade and market access, which allows for the highest value markets for pork products. Retaliation against pork products is not an answer – and NPPC will vigorously oppose. NPPC’s urges the Trump administration to support U.S. pork exports by negotiating new market access for U.S. pork, particularly the elimination of all tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade that still exist between the U.S. and Vietnam.

Why it matters: U.S. pork producers depend on international trade, exporting product to more than 100 countries annually. Exports add the equivalent of more than $66 in average value to each hog marketed, support more than 140,000 American jobs, and contribute nearly $16 billion to the U.S. economy. Canada, China, and Mexico are among the top five destinations for U.S. pork.

Ag Groups Ask Trump Administration to Maintain Market Access, Resolve Disputes

What happened: In anticipation of a battle of tariffs between the United States and many of its trading partners, NPPC and 17 other national agricultural organizations asked the Trump Administration to focus on maintaining market access and resolving trade disputes. The groups also reiterated their support for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is up for review in 2026, and called for new trade deals with the United Kingdom and India as well as efforts to eliminate trade barriers.

In the letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the organizations said while they support President Trump’s efforts to achieve fairer trade for the United States, they want the administration to focus on maintaining existing markets, avoiding punitive tariffs, and advancing an aggressive strategy that expands market access for U.S. agricultural products. They are particularly concerned about U.S. duties on Canada, China, and Mexico, which take about half of all U.S. agricultural exports. Last year, the United States shipped more than $83 billion of product to those countries – the top three value markets for U.S. farm goods.

“Additional tariffs on these nations’ imports run the risk of significant retaliatory measures against U.S. agricultural exports, which have already been implemented by Canada and China,” the groups said. “The looming threat of a renewed trade conflict with our top trading partners has the potential for long-term negative ramifications for American farmers, ranchers, growers and agribusinesses.”

Why it matters: American agricultural exports, which last year totaled $176 billion, have benefited greatly from the expansion of trade in recent decades. This also means when the U.S. restricts trade through tariffs on other countries’ products, American farm and ranch goods are often targeted for retaliatory tariffs or restrictive measures, putting farmers and rural communities on the front line of many trade disputes and jeopardizing American growers’ access to critical foreign markets, said the agricultural organizations in their April 1 letter to Bessent, Greer, Lutnick, and Rollins.

NPPC Files Additional Comments on Swine Health Improvement Plan

What happened: NPPC submitted additional comments on codifying, under USDA, the U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan. US SHIP is a national producer-driven voluntary program to establish disease-free certifications for foreign animal diseases (FADs) such as African swine fever (ASF) and Classical swine fever (CSF). Modeled after the poultry industry’s National Poultry Improvement Program (NPIP), US SHIP has potential to facilitate certifications for endemic diseases as well.

In its most recent comments, NPPC reemphasized the importance of establishing the General Conference Committee (GCC) as an advisory committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The Trump administration has been eliminating discretionary advisory committees as part of its government efficiency efforts. While it has been suggested to create subcommittees within the existing Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Animal Health that would serve as the GCC for US SHIP as well as for the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP), NPPC said that would be unworkable given the species-specific requirements of US SHIP and NPIP.

NPPC’s take: In its comments, NPPC, which strongly supports the development of the US SHIP under the auspices of USDA, said swine health advisements to USDA need to come from species-specific experts. It pointed out that the current US SHIP pilot GCC membership is made up of swine health experts who provide scientific guidance specific to the swine industry to establish standards for producer enrollment and operation of the plan. For more information on US SHIP, click here.

Why it matters: US SHIP will be an important tool for demonstrating that pork operations are free of disease, which could expedite the resumption of trade following an FAD outbreak.

Looking Ahead: Vaden Nomination Hearing

What happened: Former Trump administration official Stephen Vaden is scheduled before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry for his confirmation hearing to be the next deputy secretary of Agriculture. Click here to watch the hearing.

NPPC recently joined more than 200 agricultural organizations on a letter urging Senate lawmakers to approve Vaden’s nomination. He was general counsel for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the first Trump administration, serving from 2017 to 2020. Currently, he is a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade.

NPPC’s take: NPPC has worked closely with Vaden, as he was instrumental in the development of the pork industry’s strategy to argue Prop. 12 in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. NPPC strongly supports Vaden for the No. 2 job at USDA and is asking the Senate agriculture committee and the full Senate to quickly approve his nomination.