GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Sweeping tariffs from President Donald Trump’s administration might threaten Michigan’s agricultural trade, the director of the Michigan Division of Agriculture and Rural Improvement says.
“Michigan is going to be one of the most impacted states with retaliatory tariffs. Agriculture is the number two industry in Michigan,” stated Tim Boring in a Wednesday morning interview at Nexstar’s bureau in Washington, D.C. “The crops that Michigan grows feed our state, our country. They feed the world.”
In 2024, Michigan exported almost $3 billion in agriculture-related merchandise, setting a brand new document.
“It really shows the capacity of agricultural production here in Michigan,” Boring stated. “We’ve got a number of significant trading partners around the world, but our closest neighbors are our closest trading partners: Canada, Mexico. At the same time, a lot of our products go to the Far East. Countries like Japan, China, Korea (are) significant trading partners for us.”
Because the Trump administration implements tariffs on almost the entire United States’ buying and selling companions, Boring stated there have been issues in regards to the future.
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“Especially with Canada — so much trade goes back and forth on a regular basis, and we’ve got a lot of integrated agricultural economies. Hogs, for instance, that might begin their life over in Ontario only to find their way into Michigan here later in life,” he stated. “There’s a lot of concern, then, about the continued viability of those markets and making sure that the United States is seen as a trusted, reliable trading partner.”
In Washington, Boring stated he was assembly with lawmakers.
“(We’re) talking about the successes of Michigan agriculture and some of the impacts that we continue to see that might potentially threaten some of the exports,” he stated.
