TAMPA, Fla. — After 25 years of farming blueberries, Bill Braswell is navigating the complex landscape of tariffs and their potential impact on Florida's agricultural industry.
"Being a farmer's fun, challenging. There's a lot of work, but I enjoy it,” said Braswell.
Right now, there are questions on how tariffs could impact the agricultural industry.
WATCH the full report on tariff impacts on farmers in Florida
"For farmers themselves, it's a good thing,” said Braswell. “Specialty crops are pretty much everything that you find in the produce aisle of your grocery store that's not corn or wheat or soybeans or something like that, and all of those products are grown here in the States, but we're competing against foreign competition that just floods the market."
Braswell, who's also a Polk County Commissioner, thinks tariffs will benefit Florida farmers and balance trade.
"They ship it here unsold without a price tag on it, and that's what we're up against, and it's just not fair,” said Braswell.
On the other hand, Gbenga Ajilore, the Chief Economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, sees it differently.
"We already have tariffs from China, Canada, and Mexico on a lot of goods that impact farmers, where you're talking about fertilizer, where you're talking about steel,” said Ajilore.
Ajilore said countries can also put retaliatory tariffs back on other goods.
"Farmers, while it's good that they produce domestically and help to produce, they also have a huge export market, and that's where they make their money, and so when you have the retaliatory tariffs, that has an impact,” said Ajilore.
ABC Action News asked Braswell if he sees any downside for farmers with tariffs.
"The grain farmers are going to see a slowdown in their sales, no doubt,” said Braswell. “They export most of it to China, so that's going to be a big deal for them, but for the specialty crop grower, I think we'll see better pricing. The bottom line is this: if we don't see better pricing, we're all going out of business."
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