Farmers fear more damage from U.S.-Canada trade fight

0:00Canada hit back today against President Trump's latest 50 percent tariffs. The country is loving its own retaliatory tariffs on about 20 billion dollars worth of U.S. goods. And that will affect everything from imports of steel to farm equipment. Farmers in rural border states are worried about their bottom line as impairs Kirk Seagler reports from northern Montana. It's a two-hour drive north to the province of Alberta from Steve Shuffle's wheat and barley farm outside Great Falls. But you can see evidence of Canadian trade everywhere here, starting with the massive steel shredders attached to the front of his combines for harvesting. They're called headers and they cut the grain he just finished harvesting. For us, anyway, these headers are the best ones that we can buy we think so. And they're made in Canada with steel and they're ideal for this harsh environment, Shuffle says. He says this whole trade tussle feels like a big waste of time. Getting the entire world upset with us. Our trading partners can't be happy with what's going on.

1:02Now farm equipment is subject to a 15 percent or higher retaliatory tariff. This is just the latest economic stress for grain farmers who are during generally flat commodity prices, the second trade war spanning two Trump administrations, as well as record high diesel prices and rising fertilizer costs. All of this uncertainty weighs on Shuffle's. I'd like to consider buying a new drill and I'm also looking at grain bins that come out of Canada and I'm afraid I won't be able to afford them. Touching three provinces, Canada is Montana's single largest trading partner, accounting for about a billion in cross-border sales. That's no small number for a state with barely a million people. Lately, farmers have been shipping a lot of barley north to Canadian feed lots, says, as well as their cattle, which had been a lifeline for the struggling ag economy. It's just sad that food has to be a bargaining chip. This is Gillian Street, director of Montana's Department of Agriculture, who also grows wheat alongside chickpeas and lentils on a family farm and ranch near the border.

2:06Canada is a hugely important trade partner because I don't know how many times as a farm wife I'm running up to Lethbridge to get parts or especially on the cattle side of things. We send 15% of our herd up north to be fed out. Street thinks farmers will get through this latest trade war by maintaining strong business ties with farmers and companies north of the border that she says are caught in the middle of this escalating trade fight. Montana voted overwhelmingly for Trump and it's not just farming that's going to be hit. At the Montana World Trade Center in Missoula, director Brigitte Miranda Freer is worried. She says America's adversarial tone toward Canada will jeopardize business for small manufacturers here and the vital service and tourism industries. It doesn't feel right for Montana's. Montana's very much pride themselves on developing business relationships that are authentic and personal. For wheat and barley farmer Steve Sheffields, it all feels personal.

3:08He says this isn't how you treat friends. Not alone one who has been one of the US's closest allies. They're critical trading partners. My wife is Canadian. It just you know you don't treat your neighbors like this. His wife is Canadian, a sign of just how close families and businesses on both sides of the border are interlinked and how tenuous these times feel in the heartland. Kirk Sigler in PR News, great falls Montana.