Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 9/13/18

Members of the National Farmers Union are frustrated with the Trump administration's trade battles. Hundreds of farmers are in Washington for NFU's legislative fly-in, and on Wednesday they pressed administration officials and lawmakers to explain the endgame.

"For farmers selling $6.62 beans in Central North Dakota today, can you describe what a win will look like? Higher prices, greater demand, or do I simply have another market that I can sell into but can't make money in?" one row crop grower asked Gregg Doud, USTR's chief agricultural negotiator, following his speech at USDA. The farmer was referring to the drop in soybean prices since the tit-for-tat on tariffs began, and his question prompted loud applause and hoots and hollers from the audience.

"There are people in this room that will not survive this," a Minnesota farmer stood up and said. "It needs to come to an end."
'It has to be done': Doud said the administration is working on opening markets that are closed to U.S. products. He defended President Donald Trump's crackdown on China, arguing that Beijing has erected barriers to U.S. farm exports like rice, poultry, ethanol, apples and cherries. China also hasn't reported its farm subsidies to the WTO since 2010, he said. And the country's "Made in China 2025" plan to become a tech superpower means that now is the time to address America's long-standing complaints about Beijing's tactics like forced technology transfers and IP theft, he added.

"Is it going to be pleasant? No," Doud said. "We didn't make the decision to retaliate against agricultural products. They did. We have to work as quickly as we can to address those issues, and get things going in other markets. But this is the situation we're in. It gives me no pleasure to tell you this. But it has to be done."