President Trump delivered the strongest pro-farmer, pro-worker trade agenda in a generation. His Big Beautiful Bill was built to secure American jobs, reward production here at home, export American goods around the world, and put the globalists on notice. No more selling out our heartland for cheap imports and broken promises.
But some swamp creatures in Washington want to sneak in a quiet betrayal.
In the House version that just passed, special interests snuck in a repeal of certain duty drawbacks. This little-known but important policy helps reduce the U.S. trade deficit by maximizing the number of American-made or American-grown products that get shipped overseas. The Senate following suit by accepting this bill provision wouldn’t be America First. It would be America Last.
When American farmers or manufacturers import raw materials — fertilizer, steel, chemicals — they pay tariffs. As they should. That’s part of Trump’s strategy to ensure other nations don’t rip off the U.S. economy. Trump’s tariffs protect farmers and the U.S. agricultural sector as much as they do every other American industry.
However, if U.S. farmers or companies use these imports to make other goods that they sell overseas or export goods similar to those they imported — whether wheat, whiskey, or wine — they’re eligible to get some or all the tariffs they paid refunded. Why? Because tariffs are meant to promote American exports, not punish them. They help reduce the U.S. trade deficit and keep America’s agriculture sector in the lead globally.
Why should U.S. producers pay full tariffs for selling American-made products to the rest of the world?
Farmers and U.S. manufacturers are not asking for more subsidies to match the largesse that other countries (like China) give to their producers. They’re just asking for fair treatment so they can continue helping to advance Trump’s America First trade goals.
Again, duty drawbacks help reduce the trade deficit. They boost American exports and keep our factories humming and our farms alive. And they strengthen the very America First vision that President Trump campaigned on and delivered. So why would anyone in their right mind try to gut them?
Because they don’t understand farmers. They don’t understand trade. And they sure don’t understand Trump’s base. They hear the word “drawback” and think it sounds like a tariff loophole. But they couldn’t be more wrong. And soon, they’ll come for the whole hog.
Today, they want to eliminate the duty drawback for American-grown tobacco products. But tomorrow it will be wheat, corn, cotton, soy, steel — you name it. Give the special interests in D.C. an inch, and they’ll take a mile. They always do.
Again, the whole purpose of tariffs is to boost U.S. exports. If the duty drawbacks helps the U.S. sell more goods to the countries that have ripped us off for far too long, then it’s by definition a net positive for the American economy, not a net negative — and it should stay in place.
Make no mistake: Congress eliminating this duty drawback would hurt the same family farmers President Trump pledged to protect.
According to Kimberly Foley, the Executive Director of TA, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the export of U.S. barn-cured tobacco, “Duty drawback plays a quiet but essential role in keeping U.S. leaf attractive on the international stage.” Derek Day, the Chairman of the Board and a tobacco grower himself, also noted that, “in many cases, tobacco is what holds the rest of [a farmer’s] operation together,” giving them the financial stability to stay afloat and put sweet potatoes, peanuts, cotton, poultry, and cattle on all our table. As he put it, “it’s the crop that brings resilience to our farms,” which is why “we need smart policy that ensures we can keep producing it.”
In other words, kill the duty drawback, and you risk killing the farm.
When my friends sell Virginia-grown farm produce to overseas buyers, they are not undermining trade policy. They are fulfilling it. That’s the whole point of Trump’s tariffs — to give our workers and farmers the edge, not the bill.
The swamp is always looking for ways to water down Trump’s legacy. But this time, it’s personal. It’s the livelihoods of American farmers on the line. It’s the difference between a farmer staying in business or shutting the gates for good.
So here’s my message to lawmakers: Mess with Trump’s trade agenda, and we’ll remember. Hit our farmers by caving to special interests, and we’ll hit back at the ballot box.
Martha Boneta Fain is a political strategist and farmer known for the passage of a landmark right-to-farm law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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