USDA Continues To Be Pressed On How It Calculated Farmer Aid Payments

Questions continue to be raised by some sectors of US agriculture regarding the aid payment levels the agency announced in August. USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue said at a USDA event Wednesday that "if you look at where tariffs were enforced and where we had shipped corn, that is how the calculations came out." He said USDA used “calculations that are known to economists that will calculate the tariff damages,” adding the numbers were “affirmed” by the White House Council of Economic Advisers and Office of Management and Budget (OMB).Perdue said USDA will be “as transparent as possible” in responding to requests on specifics about the payment rates. “On the face of it, I can see why corn farmers would say, ‘Why this, why that for soybeans?’ — yet that was the determined amount of tariff damage,” Perdue told reporters.Some additional information could be revealed next week as USDA Chief Economist Rob Johansson is set to testify before the Senate Ag Committee in a hearing on agricultural trade.Perdue said Johansson played a key role in the payment rates. “Dr. Johansson has tried to explain it to me a number of times,” he said of the methodology.