A bipartisan group of lawmakers remain hopeful the International Trade Commission will take immediate action to bring down fertilizer costs.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and many of his colleagues recently sent a letter to the ITC urging the commission to address the strain on the fertilizer supply chain to bring down costs.
?We?re asking the ITC to take a look at the tariffs that are on imported fertilizers at this point,? Grassley said during his weekly call with farm reporters on Tuesday.
Specifically, the lawmakers ask the ITC to eliminate duties on phosphate fertilizer products imported from Morocco and to suspend efforts to impose new duties on urea ammonium fertilizer from Trinidad and Tobago.
?We want to make sure there?s not duties put on anhydrous ammonia coming from Caribbean countries ? Trinidad, I believe it is ? and things of that nature.?
Grassley says he continues to hear from Iowa farmers concerned that these sky-high prices will make it even more difficult to earn a living. He noted that he has even felt the effect on his own farm.
?We?re also seeking these same answers from the commerce department, but we have not had an answer to our letter,? the senator said.
In their letter to ITC Chair Jason Kearns, the lawmakers warned that farmers are facing fertilizer prices four to five times higher than last year.
?Eliminating these duties on fertilizer imports provides the most immediate opportunity for a near term, partial remedy to the high costs of fertilizer facing U.S. farmers before the end of the 2022 planting season,? the lawmakers concluded.
NCGA President Chris Edgington previously stated that fertilizers have become increasingly hard to secure and pay for because of tariffs, or the threat of tariffs, on imports.
