Walz said the Trump administration's move "makes no sense" and will hurt Minnesota's farmers as much as anyone.
CANNON FALLS, Minn. — Gov. Tim Walz traveled 30 miles south of the state Capitol on Tuesday afternoon to a longtime family farm in Cannon Falls, which he used as the backdrop for a news conference blasting President Donald Trump's latest round of tariffs imposed on Canada, Mexico and China.
Visiting the farm belonging to Danny and Mary Lundell, which has been in Mary's family for 159 years, Walz said the Trump administration's move to implement 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% levy on China "makes no sense." Minnesota engages in billions of dollars worth of trade with those three countries every year.
"If this thing goes on for any amount of time, these trading partners are going to look for other partners. They're going to look elsewhere," Walz said. "We know we lost markets for our soybeans to China, the last time we did this. They went to Brazil. They went to Argentina. They'll go somewhere else."
Danny Lundell said that the tariff on a fertilizer ingredient known as potash, which largely comes from Canada, will hurt his operations at a time when many farms across the state are struggling. According to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the number of mediation reports to settle debt claims for farmers was seven times higher in January 2025 compared to January 2024.
"We need potash to raise healthier crops, and it doesn't matter if you're, big, medium or small, it is going to affect you," said Lundell, whose family has hosted several Democratic lawmakers over the years to speak about agricultural issues. "In the farming, ag community, there's a lot of nervousness going on right now."
Trump has said he supports tariffs for several reasons, including to boost U.S. production of certain goods and as a negotiating tactic to force other countries to secure their borders and stop the flow of fentanyl.
However, the Trump administration's newest tariffs on Tuesday led to immediate retaliation from Canada and China, and Mexico's president may announce a similar response by the end of the weekend.
In a statement, the American Farm Bureau Federation urged the Trump administration to find a "quick resolution to tariffs."
"Farmers support the goals of ensuring security and fair trade with other nations, but additional tariffs, along with expected retaliatory tariffs, will take a toll on rural America," Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall said. "Farmers and ranchers are concerned with the decision to impose increased tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China - our top trading partners. Last year, the U.S. exported more than $83 billion in agricultural products to the three countries."
With lingering uncertainty and a downturn in the global economic markets, Trump's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, indicated Tuesday afternoon that the U.S. may reach some kind of deal with Canada and Mexico within the next 24 hours.
In an interview with reporters in Washington, D.C., Vice President J.D. Vance also said President Trump will continue talks with Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Although Canada spent more than a billion dollars recently on a border plan and Trudeau said it's "totally false" to suggest his country hasn't tried to fight fentanyl, the Trump administration says it's not satisfied.
"We need to see real engagement on the fentanyl issue, on the drug issue," Vance said. "That is fundamentally the underlying element of these tariffs."
Meanwhile, President Trump wrote in a social media post this week that the "Great Farmers of the United States" should "Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!"
On the family farm in Cannon Falls, Mary Lundell said that's "not realistic."
"We're a global economy. You can't just focus on the interior in the U.S. only," Lundell said. "That's just not realistic in today's world."