Local ag industry optimistic about temporary U.S. & China tariff pause

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- On Monday, the U.S. and China reached a deal to pause their tariffs for 90 days.

"We made a great deal with China, a great trade deal," President Trump said in a press conference on Monday.

After two days of talks, both sides agreed to drop the retaliatory tariffs that had ratcheted up over the last few weeks.

U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods will drop from 145% back down to 30%, while Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods dropped from 125% to 10%.

"That doesn't include that are already on that are our tariffs. It doesn't include on cars, steel, aluminum, things such as that," Trump said.

Monday's announcement comes after a month-long trade war between the two countries.

"We concluded that we had shared interests," U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a press conference in Geneva on Monday.

Ryan Jacobsen, CEO of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, says this is great news for the Central Valley's ag industry.

"California exports over 40% of what we produce," Jacobsen said. "The China/Hong Kong market represents our third largest market, and they take just about every commodity we produce here."

Jacobsen says the announcement brings temporary certainty to the industry.

"The crops that are probably the most optimistic when it comes to having this certainty is hopefully the nut side, but China also does buy a lot of fresh produce as well," he stated.

But if no agreement is made once those 90 days are up, tariffs could increase once again as the Valley reaches peak harvest season.

"We look at 90 days out, we do have a lot of our nuts coming off at that point for the 2025 crop year, to table grapes to strawberries," he explained.

Jacobsen hopes to see a longer-term agreement before those harvest months.

Trump said in a press conference Monday that if tariffs go back in place, they would not go all the way back up to 145%, but would be "substantially higher" than Monday.

He added that he thinks there will be a deal within the 90 days.

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