By DOUG SCHMITZ

Iowa Correspondent

WILLIAMSBURG, Iowa — U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst told more than 120 equipment manufacturers, farmers, and business owners at Kinze Manufacturing, Inc. she’s “cautiously optimistic” the current tariffs on steel and aluminum, and Chinese goods, will soon end.

“Trade supports one in five jobs in Iowa, and we know tariffs are threatening these jobs by adding additional expenses and hurting our farmers,” the Republican from Iowa said in an April 24 town hall meeting in Williamsburg.

“Our manufacturers are having to make very hard decisions due to increased input costs and lower sales. We want to focus on the near term, get our farmers on good footing, get our manufacturers on good footing, and export to the world.”

Co-hosted by the Assoc. of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) and Tariffs Hurt and Heartland – a national free-trade coalition of U.S. farmers and hundreds of organizations, including AEM – the meeting focused on the impact steel and aluminum tariffs are having on Iowa businesses and the state’s economy.

“The best thing that we can do right now is just make sure that we’re getting these trade deals done, and make sure those tariffs are coming off; that is the best way to keep our farmers in business,” Ernst said.

“We need to get rid of the tariffs. That’s the message I’m going to send not just to Capitol Hill but the White House, as well. That the costs are driving up because of these tariffs, not just because of the retaliatory tariffs; it hurts us, the consumers.”

She said, however, President Trump is getting the U.S. a good deal with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

“This is good for U.S. farmers and ranchers,” she added. “This is good for equipment manufacturers. We need to get this done. He does toss out publicly the worst possible scenario, but what you do see is that he does get results from that.”

The event also sponsored a roundtable discussion with Iowa equipment manufacturers, farmers, and small-business owners discussing the impact of tariffs with Ernst.

Joining her were Dennis Slater, AEM president, who led the panel discussion; Richard Dix, senior director of supply chain at Kinze, a family-owned global manufacturer of farm equipment; Barbara Solberg, public policy strategist for the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance; and John Heisdorffer, a Keota, Iowa, farmer who chairs the American Soybean Assoc.

In addition, Jeff Quint, owner and founder of Cedar Ridge Winery and Distillery, and Pam Johnson, a Floyd, Iowa, farmer and past president of the National Corn Growers Assoc., participated in the discussion.

Slater told attendees, “While our manufacturers support the Trump administration’s efforts to improve our nation’s existing trade policies, what we need are policies that open up foreign markets, not tax Americans.”

Dix said the tariff situation “has put us in a tough position … We must ask ourselves: do we pass the increased costs on to our consumer, or do we have to make more difficult decisions here? It’s a difficult trade-off that these tariffs are forcing us to make.

“It’s all well and good to hear sound bites on national TV about sticking it to the Chinese, or this is a tax on the Chinese,” he added. “The bottom line is, we’re paying the price.”

Heisdorffer said, “I’m putting down my 47th crop this spring. I’ve served the soybean industry for 23 years. My son farms with me. I’m not so concerned about myself, but I’m concerned about my son’s welfare, and the future of young farmers.”

As a sixth-generation farmer, Johnson said “trade wars are not easy to win.

“There’s so much uncertainty in the countryside,” she noted. “I look up and down Main Street, and they’re hurting, and now the farmers are really hurting. Some aren’t even farming anymore. It’s really changing the fabric of Iowa.”

Solberg said the No. 1 thing the alliance hears with this issue of tariffs is certainty.

“Businesses, including farmers, want certainty, and that’s not what’s happening right now,” she said. “Businesses are putting expansions on hold, and this is really stifling our economy. We’re urging Congress to approve the USMCA trade agreement and end the tariffs.”

In the end, Ernst said she is “cautiously optimistic” Congress will ratify the USMCA and, in speaking with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the United States will be closer to reaching a trade deal with China.