Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to hit an array of Canadian goods with new tariffs should serve as a "wake-up call to Canada to make some changes."
This weekend, hundreds of thousands of people are attending the
Iowa State Fair — a major attraction featuring several days of entertainment, a rodeo and even a life-size butter cow that's been carved every year since 1911.
Much like the Calgary Stampede in Canada, the
Iowa State Fair is a crucial stop for politicians to meet voters, making it a hotbed for political debates — especially when U.S. midterms are coming up.
And this year, one of the topics on Iowans' minds is U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war.
Grassley has long said that CUSMA should remain in place. On Friday, he said Trump wants to "tweak" the agreement a little bit and accused Canada of not upholding its CUSMA commitments to dairy access even though the United States has never exceeded Canada's duty-free dairy tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) to pay the high over-quota penalties.
“This policy has been very chaotic, and our farmers have struggled to figure out what's going on," said Aaron Lehman,
a fifth-generation family farmer and president of the Iowa Farmers Union.
"If we were getting to a situation that meant fairer trade eventually for farmers, I think farmers would understand that sometimes it's necessary to go through some pain. But we're not seeing us getting any closer.”
Under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA/USMCA)
that Grassley either doesn’t understand or isn’t aware of, Canada sets specific volume caps where American dairy enters with low or zero duty.
“
We've lost many international customers of ours who no longer see us as reliable trade partners and they're going to countries where they have a more predictable trade policy, more reasonable trade policy."
For farmers like Lehman, that economic pain may reach another level in just a few days. Canada is
Iowa's largest export market, accounting for 30 per cent of the state's total goods exports in 2025, according to the
U.S. government.” Canada is the largest customer (top export market) for
27 U.S. states according to the latest
Progressive Policy Institute report. While historical numbers fluctuated as high as 36 states depending on yearly trade flows, economic shifts have stabilized Canada as the primary customer for just over half of the United States.
Below these quotas, American dairy sales to Canada face zero tariffs. The United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, or
USMCA,
a trade agreement negotiated by the first Trump administration, had raised the thresholds for the protectionist tariffs.
But that key trading relationship could be upended on Aug. 19, if Trump imposes his threatened 50 per cent tariffs on hundreds of Canadian goods. The two countries are working over the weekend to secure a trade deal, but it so far
remains out of reach.
Other farmers who spoke to CBC News in Iowa also expressed concern about Trump's economic agenda, especially toward Canada. Jack Ploen, who farms about 80 hectares in Avoca, Iowa, said Canada is "
our most valuable partner in the world and in the trading sector."
"I'm a Republican, but I think Donald went too far in some of the things he does," Ploen said. "And he's pushed a lot of people away. A lot of countries are standoffish with us because of his policies. I support some of what he does, but not everything."
U.S. dairy exports regularly fail to fill the allocated duty-free limits. Utilization rates for many categories hover around 42% to 60% so this is only an issue for the low information American voters who have just never educated themselves on this situation
Lehman (who’s also the president of the Iowa Farmers Union) said Trump's economic policies are damaging his relationship with
Iowa farmers, and it's showing up in political polling ahead of the midterm elections in November.
During the last gubernatorial race in 2022, the Republican candidate Kim Reynolds beat the Democratic challenger by more than 200,000 votes. In the 2024 presidential election, Trump won the state by a similar margin — a huge victory.
But in 2026, polling suggests Democrats are either in the lead or very competitive in key races, such as the ones for
Iowa governor or
U.S. senator.
"All indications are that conditions are extremely difficult," Lehman said. "Farmers, ordinary families are all struggling to get by, and so our races are very, very competitive for the first time in a number of years."
On Friday, at a manufacturing facility in
Iowa, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer touted Trump's economic strategy and said the U.S. government is committed to making American industry competitive with tariffs and tax cuts. "We're seeing a transition from an economy that was focused on government spending, government jobs, subsidies for all these different programs… to an economy that's focused on American workers," Greer said.
Ashley Hinson, the Republican nominee in the 2026 U.S. Senate election in
Iowa, has
previously said the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement should be renewed but some changes should be made for fairer market access.
U.S. dairy exports regularly fail to fill the allocated duty-free limits. Utilization rates for many categories hover around 42% to 60% so this is only an issue for the low information American voters who have just never educated themselves on this situation.
On Friday,
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley told The Canadian Press that Trump is likely using his tariff threat against Canada as a lever, and the Canadian government should view his moves as a wake-up call to make changes.
Much like the Calgary Stampede in Canada, the Iowa State Fair is a crucial stop for politicians to meet voters, making it a hotbed for political debates — especially when U.S. midterms are coming up. And this year, one of the topics on Iowans' minds is U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war.
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Despite a flurry of negotiations toward a tariff deal this past week that were expected to stretch into this weekend, sources tell CBC News that Canada and the U.S. remain far apart as Trump's deadline looms.
The sources said the federal government does not believe a tariff deal is imminent because there are still major disagreements between the two sides.
One source with knowledge of the talks said optimism on the Canadian side is eroding and the Americans are not budging from their latest offer. That offer includes a proposal that could see the sectoral tariffs on autos halved to 12.5 per cent, an offer that the Canadian side believes is not good enough, the source said. Industry sources previously told CBC News that Canadian negotiators have aggressively made it clear they see the Aug. 19 date as a cliff-type moment, meaning there would be no political appetite among Canadians to keep talks going if the 50 per cent tariffs come into force.
Manitoba ships more than three-million young pigs to the United States each year and about two million go directly to Iowa.
"We're not pushing those pigs down here. They're pulling them from us," Préjet said. "There's a need. There's a demand. We just kind of come down to just remind everybody the importance of our relationship."
Canada's Ambassador to the United States Mark Wiseman took park in the traditional pork chop flip — which was successful on the second try — and stood for photos with the Iowa Pork Queen Saturday afternoon.
Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald, Minneapolis Consul General Beth Richardson and representatives from Quebec and Alberta also attended.
Pork is a popular topic at the Iowa State Fair as hungry patrons mow down on
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“I'll be super, super honest, I don't know a lot about it," said 33-year-old Kaitlin Becker about Iowa's relationship with Canada. Becker isn't alone. Many Iowans at the fair didn't know about the state's relationship with Canada and didn’t feel comfortable talking about the current upheaval caused by Trump's tariffs and threats of annexation.
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We’re the tail on the American dog, with a tiny economic footprint comparatively, so we just can’t do that tit for tat that a nation like China can do, as it would just be beyond stupid for us to do so.
. I feel like I’ve probably found my way onto a watchlist trying to find a Wikipedia page about this though.
www.factcheck.org
www.youtube.com
Canada dropped its digital services tax and rolled back the Online Streaming Act to appease the U.S. However, these early moves did little (or nothing) to stop pressure. The Trump administration still demands changes to dairy quotas, the removal of provincial bans on U.S. alcohol, and the end of Canada's retaliatory auto tariffs. Past concessions have not stopped new tariff threats and the best indicator of future behaviour is past behaviour.
www.bbc.com
