President Donald Trump escalated the nation's domestic economic policy this week by declaring a national emergency in U.S. fertilizer supplies.
The emergency proclamation temporarily suspends tariffs imposed on Morocco's phosphate fertilizer manufacturers, which include anti-dumping and countervailing duties.
The declaration notes that producers in the Kingdom of Morocco are uniquely positioned to supply phosphate fertilizers to the United States without disruption and that bypassing the trade penalties is intended to guarantee a sufficient and timely supply before the seasonal application window closes in the early spring.
Fertilizer is one of the largest input costs facing American agriculture, according to the United States Department of Agriculture
"The United States’ largest foreign source of phosphate fertilizer has experienced supply chain disruption, placing additional pressure on the farm economy and the production of certain categories of domestic food," the declaration states.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins expects the emergency relief to reduce Moroccan phosphate fertilizer costs by some 22 percent and save American farmers some $1.82 billion annually.
More than 100,000 farms across 97 million planted acres nationwide are expected to benefit.
The proclamation further outlines that persistent threats to the global fertilizer supply chain create rapid price increases and procurement challenges, which require the United States to procure phosphate fertilizer from diversified foreign sources in order to mitigate the significant risk of harm to the agricultural food production of the United States.
The emergency is fueled by an insufficiency in the production of phosphate fertilizer in the United States, which is needed to support agricultural food production.
Although the federal government is working with the private sector to expand domestic fertilizer manufacturing capacity, Trump’s declaration predicts that those efforts will take time to increase the supply materially.
The tariffs are suspended for up to eight months.
“Immediate action is necessary and appropriate to ensure in the interim that United States farmers have access to a sufficient and timely supply of phosphate fertilizers during the planting and growing season, to ensure a stable domestic crop supply, and to meet our food production needs,” the decree further states.