Beeville, Texas—Matt Huie, President of the Southwest Council of Agribusiness (SWCA), issued the following statement concerning the Trump Administration’s announcement of a second Market Facilitation Program (MFP-II):   

“Farmers and ranchers are going through our 6th straight year of severe recession and unjustified foreign retaliatory tariffs are making already tough times even tougher.  In fact, based on its modeling, Texas A&M’s  Agriculture and Food Policy Center is warning that two-thirds of U.S. farmers will be in serious financial straits unless conditions turn around.  Thankfully, the MFP-II announced by Secretary Perdue throws us a vital life-line to help ensure that we can make it though this year and hopefully secure the credit we need to return to the fields for the next growing season.  The MFP-II also buys some time for Congress to pass USMCA this year and for the U.S. and China to successfully conclude trade negotiations to end the current dispute so we can achieve a truly free and fair global market where foreign countries are expected to play by the same set of rules that we do.  On behalf of the SWCA, I commend the President and Secretary Perdue and his team at USDA for their hard work in developing an MFP-II package that provides real help to farmers and ranchers when we need it most.”   

The SWCA is a consortium of farm and ranch organizations, lenders, and Main Street businesses in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas that advocates for strong U.S. farm policy to help America’s farm and ranch families weather natural disasters and the predatory trade practices of foreign countries.