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Jan 23 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Thursday she would consider direct payments to farmers to offset losses from proposed tariffs, modeled after the approach taken in Trump’s first term.
If confirmed, Brooke Rollins would lead the $200 billion agency and its nearly 100,000 employees whose broad remit includes nutrition and commodity programs, farm loans, forestry, and trade.
Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports in his first term resulted in retaliatory tariffs on soybeans. The administration then paid billions to farmers to offset losses.
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on China as well as Mexico and Canada. Rollins said during her Thursday nomination hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee that she has spoken with Sonny Perdue, Trump’s farm secretary in his first term, about how the agency managed the trade war.
Asked whether the USDA would protect immigrant farmworkers from Trump’s mass deportation effort, Rollins said she would listen to the labor needs of farm businesses but that she had not been involved in conversations about the deportation plan and could not answer whether farms would be targeted.
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