Business leaders and farmers gathered at Cedar Ridge Distillery in Swisher on Tuesday to weigh in on the impact tariffs are having on Iowa.

Farmers for Free Trade sponsored a “Tariff Town Hall” that featured a panel of industry experts moderated by John Lohman, CEO of the Corridor Media Group, which publishes the CBJ and its sister publication the QCBJ.

“We're obviously concerned about the impact of tariffs on the business conditions in Europe, and I want to make sure that we get our voice heard,” said panelist Richard Dix, vice president of supply chain management with Kinze Manufacturing. The company opened a production facility in Lithuania in 2013.

According to data from Trade Partnership Worldwide, LLC, Iowa tariffs increased 304% in one year and ranks 11th among all states for the largest increase in tariffs paid.

Imports of unwrought aluminum, machinery parts, vehicle parts, insecticides and fungicides, and engines and motor parts into Iowa faced the steepest tariffs in April 2025. But tariff increases hit nearly all goods, pushing the average rate on Iowa imports from 2% in April 2024 to 8.9% a year later.

“I feel like we kind of get it on both sides when we buy our inputs,” said panelist Matthew Willimack, a member of the Iowa Soybean Association board of directors, regarding farmers. “We pay the tariff coming in, but there are products that we produce – corn and soybeans, depending on what country it's going to – and China being one of our largest customers for especially soybean exports, we get tariffs on the way going out…it's a challenge in our day to day lives.”

China accounted for 12% of Iowa’s exports last year, representing $2.6 billion in the sale of goods. Of those exports, pork accounted for 84%, soybeans 49%, and non-coniferous sawn wood accounted for 74%.

Tariffs imposed on Chinese goods soared as high as 145% in March, before settling to the current 55% and inspiring a retaliatory tariff from the country. Since then, China has begun shopping elsewhere, finding a soybean source in Brazil.

“(Tariffs have) created an easier marketplace for Brazil to tie up our largest customer,” Mr. Willimack said. “And Brazil has the ability to expand acreage and continue to expand acreage into the future. So all we're doing is taking away our largest customer and handing it over to somebody else – and that creates a difficult opportunity for agriculture in Iowa.”

“Brazil has continued to grow by leaps and bounds,” agreed panelist Chad Hart, economist at Iowa State University. Ten years ago the U.S. was considered the largest soybean producer, accounting for a third of the global market; and while it still accounts for a third of the world’s soybeans, it ranks second for production, the top spot now belonging to Brazil, he said.

“(The tariffs) created a great incentive for China to find a new market. Brazil was ready for that opportunity, and they have taken full advantage of that,” he continued.

Difficulty in planning ahead

The fluidity of the tariff situation has made it difficult for businesses to plan for the future.

“It definitely changes day to day,” Mr. Hart said. In addition to the 10% blanket tariff on imports, trade deficits have inspired on-again, off-again reciprocal tariffs on individual countries. Along with tariffs hitting specific industries like steel and aluminum, “when you put these all together, we do see business confusion, consumer confusion,” he added.

For Kinze Manufacturing, the situation has created uncertainty in market exploration when crafting business plans for the future.

Each year, “we look at what markets we want to be in and where we want to invest our dollars,” Mr. Dix said. For a while, the European Union market was looking promising, but now “we don't even consider opening any new markets,” he added. “There's just too much uncertainty. It's an unstable situation. And when you have limited resources, you need to know as much as possible about your direction, your initiatives, and you can't deal with that uncertainty, so you just avoid it.”

Supply chain issues have also been a by-product of the current tariff situation. Magnets used in Kinze proximity sensors cannot be sourced from the company’s current suppliers, and a substantial amount of the earth’s rare minerals come from China, Mr. Dix said.

“These are real world issues that are essentially affecting our daily production,” he said.

Future impact

Looking ahead at the impact on Iowa’s economy, Mr. Hart said the tariff situation is exacerbating the “already troubled economy” facing the ag sector.

“Net farm incomes have been down drastically over the past couple of years. When you're looking at the ag manufacturing side, we've seen cuts of very large employers out there,” he said. Manufacturing is also starting to “show some cracks.”

“When we're looking at the Midwest in general and Iowa specifically here, we are very sensitive to these tariffs, both coming and going, and we're seeing it show up in a lot of different industries, for a lot of different businesses,” he continued. “And the longer the uncertainty goes on, the harder it is for businesses to make those decisions, for consumers to feel confident putting those dollars forward, to buy that equipment…it does put the Iowa economy in a very challenging spot right now.”

Asked if tariffs pose a growing threat to farmer’s livelihoods, Mr. Willimack admitted it will be a financial strain for some.

“The issue with that is – farmers don't leave farming…mental health becomes an issue in agriculture at some point,” he said. “When you have a hard time making money and that's all you've ever known, you don't have formal education, that becomes a scary thing. So there's definitely concerns with long term financial stress.”

For tariffs to be effective, they need to be highly targeted, Mr. Hart said, usually toward an individual country and sector.

“Tariffs can make sense if they're targeted, but when we see a general blanket approach – that tends to be less effective, at least in bringing across what's called meaningful trade changes in time,” he said.