After President Donald Trump announced a $12 billion plan to soften the blow of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. farmers, lawmakers from California are asking him not to overlook the state’s massive specialty-crops markets. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo California GOP lawmakers lobby Trump to help farmers hurt by tariffs

LOS ANGELES – President Donald Trump’s trade war is pitting Republicans in California against their brethren in the Midwest.

One week after Trump announced a $12 billion plan to soften the blow of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. farmers, several Republican House members from California — in addition to several Democrats — are appealing to the Trump administration not to overlook the state’s massive specialty-crops markets.


The letter underscores the difficulty facing Republicans and farming interests in California, an agricultural behemoth, in lobbying the Trump administration. Unlike in the Midwest, where Trump has focused most of his attention on trade, and where farmers represent one of the president’s key constituencies, California is so heavily Democratic that no Republican presidential candidate has carried the state since George H.W. Bush in 1988.

“In response to the recent announcement of your mitigation proposal and its expected programs and scope, we strongly urge that specialty crop farmers be given the same forethought as other tariff-impacted commodity sectors,” Reps. Jeff Denham, Devin Nunes and others say in a letter expected to be sent Tuesday to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. “Specifically, they should receive a share of the $12 billion mitigation funding that is adequately proportional to the damage they will face from retaliatory tariffs.”

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In addition to Denham and Nunes, the letters’ signatories include Republican Reps. David Valadao, Ed Royce and Ken Calvert, as well as Democrats Jim Costa, Jimmy Panetta, Julia Brownley, Salud Carbajal and Ami Bera, according to Denham’s office.

While writing that they “support the need for free and fair trade with our international partners,” the California lawmakers said trade tensions and retaliatory tariffs from other countries “are making fruits, vegetables and tree nuts in our districts significantly more expensive than their competitors, threatening the economic livelihood of our businesses and communities.”

“Our growers’ highest priority for maintaining market share, which is incredibly difficult to regain if lost, is free and fair trade,” the letter says. “That being said, if they are to be significantly impacted in the interim, we agree that mitigation assistance should be pursued.”

The lawmakers urged the Trump administration to adopt relief programs that will do as much for growers of high-value commodities, such as tree nuts, as for growers of such crops as soybeans, corn and wheat.

