Ag Policy Blog

OMAHA (DTN) -- Former President Donald Trump on Monday threatened John Deere with a 200% tariff on imported machinery for moving jobs and manufacturing to Mexico.

The Republican presidential nominee participated at a roundtable discussion in Smithton, Pennsylvania, focused on agriculture and concerns over the influence of China in the food supply. Trump then pointed to the Deere tractors behind him holding a banner "Protect Our Food From China."

"I will tell you that I just noticed behind me John Deere tractors. I know a lot about John Deere. I love the company, but as you know, they've announced a few days ago that they're going to move a lot of their manufacturing business to Mexico."

Deere announced in 2022 it was moving some machinery production to Mexico. This year, Deere announced plans to build skid steers in Mexico. At the same time Deere has announced cutbacks of more than 1,800 production workers at facilities mainly in Illinois and Iowa.

Deere has pushed back on criticisms about its commitment to U.S. manufacturing, highlighting that the company has invested more than $2 billion in domestic factories since 2019. Deere also notes the company has $27 billion in total U.S. manufacturing capital and employs roughly 30,000 employees across 60 facilities in 16 states. See, https://about.deere.com/… .

Deere did not respond to a request for comment late Monday.

Trump warned companies in his first term as president they would face tariffs if they moved domestic manufacturing overseas while he was in office.

In his remarks Monday, Trump said if he wins in 2024, any Deere machinery being imported from Mexico would face a high tariff. "I'm just notifying John Deere right now. If you do that, we're putting a 200% tariff on everything that you want to sell into the United States. "

Trump said he would be imposing similar tariffs for other companies as well. "Because it's hurting our farmers. It's hurting our manufacturing. And if you do that, you're going to have a 200% tariff put on the product that you make in Mexico, right across the border."

Trump added, "They think they're going to make product cheaper in Mexico and then sell it in for the same price as they did before. (They) Make a lot of money by getting rid of our labor and our jobs and, really a great name, because John Deere is a great name."

Trump, who owns multiple golf courses, said Deere would avoid any tariffs by continuing to build their machinery in the U.S.

"I buy a lot of John Deere, tremendous. I'm one of their big customers. I buy a lot of John Deere products as a private person. But if they're going to do that, we're going to put a 200% tariff on everything that they want to send back into the United States, which means one of two things, our country is going to make a lot of money, or they're not going to build, they're not going to open, or they're going to sell it to another country. They're entitled to do that if they want to build in the country and the United States. There's no tariff. You can go ahead and you can build in any one of the 50 states. You can go ahead. But if they don't want to do that, we're going to put a 200% tariff on John Deere. And you know what's going to happen."

Trump predicted Deere would soon announce that the company would not build in Mexico.

Monday's event was supposed to focus more on issues such as China buying U.S. farmland. Trump heard from producers about their reliance on China for inputs and energy.

Trump also told farmers at the event if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected, "Your energy costs are going to go through the roof. You won't have a farm very long."

In response to Trump's event, the Harris campaign put out a statement detailing farm bankruptcies under the Trump administration compared to the Biden administration.

"Donald Trump is headed to Pennsylvania today to talk about agriculture, but there is no disputing his failed record and reckless agenda. Under Trump, family farms shuttered while billionaires and big corporations got rich and China took advantage."

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

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