NEW REPORT: Trump’s Trade Policies Will Cost North Carolina’s Agriculture Industry $695 Million, Destroy 8,000 Jobs Arrow

As Donald Trump doubles down on his chaotic trade policies that are jacking up costs for working families and causing layoffs to rise to the highest levels since 2020, a new report found that Trump's tariffs will devastate North Carolina's agriculture industry. Specifically, Trump's tariffs and failed economic policies will cost the state's agriculture industry $695 million and destroy a whopping 8,000 North Carolina jobs.

A reminder: Trump's approval rating continues to hit all-time lows, with 60% of voters disapproving of his job performance and just 36% approving of his handling of the economy.

In response, DNC Spokesperson Albert Fujii released the following statement:

"Donald Trump couldn't care less about workers - just yesterday, he gave a Michigan worker the middle finger at an event in which he doubled down on his failed economic policies and called affordability 'fake.' Working families have had it with Trump's tariffs, especially North Carolina farmers who are set to lose nearly $700 million because of Donald Trump. Donald Trump is moving North Carolina's economy backwards. Enough is enough. While Donald Trump focuses on gilded ballrooms and giving his billionaire donors massive tax handouts, Democrats won't stop fighting for North Carolina families."

Read more below:

John Locke Foundation: How Tariffs Threaten North Carolina Agriculture

By Jeffrey Dorfman

• Agriculture in North Carolina, its rural economy, and even the state economy all face considerable risks if major trading partners such as China, the European Union, Canada, and Mexico retaliate against the U.S. to protest President Donald Trump's more aggressive trade policy.

• The estimated losses would deal a significant blow to North Carolina's economy. For what seem like plausible reductions in agricultural exports, the potential losses to the state's farming industry included in this paper add up to $695 million. That represents approximately one-third of average net farm income in North Carolina.

• Such a contraction would lead to a total of roughly 8,000 lost jobs, both directly in the agriculture industry along with the ripple effects from that lost revenue. The job losses would be concentrated in North Carolina's rural communities.

• Factoring in indirect effects on the rural economy of North Carolina adds additional estimated revenue losses on the order of $1.2 billion. That brings potential total economic losses due to trade policy retaliation to $1.9 billion, equal to over 2 percent of the gross state product of North Carolina.

• The easiest way to avoid the risks from countries retaliating against the U.S. for placing restrictions on international trade is not to put restrictions on international trade in the first place.

• North Carolina farmers have only a limited set of options for minimizing the damage.

• They can search for new markets, constantly protecting themselves against becoming too reliant on any one or a few trading partners. They can develop larger domestic markets for their commodities, such as through generic product advertising and funding new product development. They can also try to create value-added products derived from their bulk commodities, capturing a larger share of the food dollar and keeping more of the post-harvest income and jobs from further processing within North Carolina. Still, while all these are worth pursuing, they are not likely to be sufficient - especially in the short run - to mitigate the risks North Carolina farmers currently face from a potentially damaging tariff regime.

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