Farmers’ Frustration With Trump Grows as U.S. Escalates China Fight – The New York Times

The administration is looking for other ways to help farmers, including scrambling to secure additional trade deals. At the G7 summit in France this week, Mr. Trump said the United States and Japan were nearing an agreement that would result in Japanese companies buying more American corn.

Mr. Trump is also trying to appease corn farmers who complain that an Environmental Protection Agency decision this month will hamper ethanol production. Farmers say the agency’s decision to exempt small oil refineries from a requirement to blend corn-based ethanol into gasoline has led to a drop in demand for the fuel.

Last Thursday, Mr. Trump summoned Mr. Perdue and Andrew Wheeler, who heads the E.P.A., to the White House to discuss options for increasing ethanol demand. The three came up with a package of policies that Mr. Trump plans to unveil at a White House ceremony in the next week, according to people familiar with the plan. The package would leave the waivers for ethanol refineries in place, while slightly increasing federal mandates for production of corn-based ethanol and biodiesel and allowing vehicles that use high-ethanol blends of gasoline to qualify for special E.P.A. credits.

Mr. Perdue is a somewhat unlikely lieutenant in Mr. Trump’s trade war. As Georgia’s governor, he worked to strengthen ties between the state and China, welcoming Chinese companies and making economic development trips to Shanghai and Beijing. At one point he pushed for Atlanta to become a hub for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a proposed 34-country trade pact that never came to fruition.

“He’s a very strong supporter of free trade,” said Craig Lesser, who worked for Mr. Perdue as Georgia’s commissioner of economic development.

But in the Trump administration, Mr. Perdue has been a staunch backer of the president’s policies, publicly defending tariffs, working to shrink the federal government and expressing doubts about the science behind climate change.

“He’s the Trump whisperer,” said Neill Herring, an environmental activist in Georgia who once worked with Mr. Perdue in the State Legislature. “He can tell Trump exactly what he wants to hear.”