US faces huge bill to help farmers hit by Trump’s global trade wars

THE US government is planning to send billions of dollars in emergency aid to farmers who have been caught in the crossfire of President Donald Trump’s trade disputes with China and other American trading partners.

The plan comes as Mr Trump is scheduled to speak at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Kansas City in the heart of the farm country.

Mr Trump declared earlier on Tuesday that “Tariffs are the greatest!” and threatened to impose additional penalties on US trading partners as he prepared for negotiations with the EU.

The Trump administration has slapped tariffs on $34 billion (£26 billion) in Chinese goods.

China has retaliated with duties on soybeans and pork, affecting Midwest farmers in a region of the country that supported the president in his 2016 campaign.

Mr Trump has threatened to place tariffs on up to $500 billion (£380 billion) in products imported from China, a move that would dramatically ratchet up the stakes in the trade dispute involving the globe’s biggest economies.

The president has engaged in hard-line trading negotiations with China, Canada and European nations.

The imposition of punishing tariffs on imported goods has been a favoured tactic of Mr Trump, but it has prompted US trading partners to retaliate.