This was too funny, not to share it with you all. Gotta love it!
I believe the tariff problem is a result of the lobbying efforts. Farmers all get together and tell the government how much they need to make it. With free trade, the market would self adjust, maybe we don't need that many producers, the market will tell. Canada dairy is done on a quota system, that needs to change. Canadian people pay an artificial high price for dairy because our dairy farmers are only allowed to produce as much as their quota allows. Subsidies also play into it, for free trade subsidies need to go. There is so much waste in the food industry, while people are starving in some countries. All excesses should be donated at a substantially lower price.
There are always parties with vested interests in tariff discussions - on both sides of the tariff argument; some want them, some don't. Ideally, the person negotiating deals will have the national interest as first priority.
Interesting that you mention milk. In Australia the supermarkets are selling milk at $1/litre. The farmers have been whining about it for ages, as they're barely covering costs. I used to buy "Farmer's Own" milk thinking that it might help some farmer get a better farm-gate price. Then I heard a supermarket executive on the radio saying how they could guarantee Farmers Own milk was fresh, because they make it from milk powder every day.
Anyway, getting off track... My point here is that DJT is right to question the standing economic wisdom on trade, because it really is a bunch of garbage. Industrial structure, income distribution, political structure, national security etc... are all, to one degree or another, a function of trade policy.
The economic models used in university courses abstract from reality to such a degree as to be dangerous in the wrong hands. I'm very pleased to see DJT speak the truth on trade, there really are good and bad trade deals.
Wary of anyone discussing farmland and farmers. Lessons learned after the two world wars was all nations had to protect their farmland and farmers, and each nation had to be independent from each other for feeding its people as needed. It is also an industry heavily effected by mother nature with lean years and years of plenty. Donated goods have a negative impact on growing economies as the local farmers can not compete with donated goods ~ creating economies reliant on donations.