WASHINGTON, June 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. farmers are among "casualties" of the trade tension that the Trump administration launched with China, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has said.
"I think they (American farmers) are one of the casualties there of the trade disruption, yes," Perdue was quoted by CNN as saying on Tuesday.
The Trump administration last month ratcheted up the additional tariffs on 200 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent, and threatened to levy duties on another 300 billion dollars or so in Chinese goods -- moves that unilaterally escalated the trade tensions with China.
U.S. farmers, especially soybean and corn growers, have been hit hard by the tariff hikes as their products are losing access to the Chinese market.
With the trade frictions intensifying unabatedly, farmers are becoming increasingly impatient.
The Trump administration in May pledged a 16-billion-dollar package to be paid this year to farmers caught in the midst of the tariff battle, on top of the 12 billion dollars it promised last year to mitigate the negative impact on farmers' livelihood.
Perdue said he had told the president that "you can't pay the bills with patriotism," according to the network report.
Asked whether farmers can count on getting further bailout from the federal government if the trade spat is to continue, Perdue said the current package is only for 2019.
"I'm not going to promise anything for 2020," he said.
The secretary said he "would love to see" a deal to resolve the U.S.-China trade disputes come by the end of the year, but the CNN said in its report that the year's end would be too late as farm bankruptcies were up 20 percent last year.
