Will the Supreme Court's tariff ruling help West Coast agriculture?
Tariffs are a dirty word for many people in agriculture. As the American Farm Bureau Federation has pointed out, trade disruptions have created additional hardships for farmers who entered 2025 already dealing with crippling inflation and declining farm prices.
Nowhere is this truer than on the U.S. West Coast. California’s agricultural exports totaled $23.6 billion in value in 2024, representing a 6.1% increase from the previous year, according to the state Department of Food and Agriculture. The state’s ag economy has become increasingly dependent on exports, whose value has increased by 14.6% since 2015.
So when the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 overturned the sweeping global tariffs imposed unilaterally last year by President Donald Trump, on the grounds that he usurped powers reserved for Congress, the ruling inspired hope among West Coast producers and the lawmakers and organizations that represent them that the trade impediments would ease.
U.S. Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno, a high-ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, hailed the decision for reaffirming the constitutional separation of powers.
“Here in the Central Valley, where agriculture is the backbone of our economy, the real-world harm has been deep and widespread,” Costa said. “California agriculture represents an estimated $24 billion industry, and on-again, off-again tariffs have thrown supply chains into disarray, raised costs for producers, and heightened uncertainty for family farmers who already operate on thin margins.”
Similarly, the National Association of Wheat Growers noted that its producers in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere just finished the third straight year of financial losses driven partly by stubbornly high supply costs.
However, any enthusiasm among free trade-minded ag advocates has been curbed by Trump’s determination to replace the struck-down tariffs using alternative legal mechanisms. Since the ruling, the White House has already implemented a new 10% global tariff on imports and threatened to raise it to 15%.
California Board of Food and Agriculture President Don Cameron, who grows diverse crops in Fresno County, told me last summer he was concerned about the impact of tariffs on tree nut exports after the 2025 harvest. On Feb. 20, he was guardedly optimistic.
“I’m optimistic that the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling will help exports,” he said in an email. “However it sounds as if other tariffs may be forthcoming. We need to wait to see how this plays out before we can talk about improvement in overall export sales.”
Likewise, Natalie Henderson, the Almond Board of California’s director of global communications, said in an email the organization is “awaiting more clarity on the impact on what next steps will entail.” Almonds are the state’s top-valued agricultural export commodity with $4.95 billion in foreign sales in 2024.
Many in the West hope the administration will follow the advice of AFBF Zippy Duvall: “In light of (the) Supreme Court ruling, we urge the administration to work swiftly to find other ways to resolve trade disputes and finalize recently announced trade frameworks.”