DENVER — President Trump said Monday that additional 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian tariffs go into effect at midnight and in a post on Truth Social told farmers they should sell corn inside the United States, ideas that are not popular here at the Commodity Classic meeting. 

The stock market went down in reaction to Trump’s tariff announcement. 

The Commodity Classic brings together corn, wheat, soybean and sorghum farmers with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. 

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Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins assured the farmers here on Sunday that if they are subject to retaliation from trading partners, the Trump administration will compensate them, as the first Trump administration did. 

The United States produces far more corn as well as other commodities than can be consumed domestically. One farm organization official who promotes exports said that even if the Agriculture Department compensates the farmers, “what are we going to do with all the corn?”

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At a previously scheduled Association of Equipment Manufacturers news conference, Kip Eideberg, the AEM senior vice president for government and industry relations, said there is no upside to Trump’s new tariffs. 

“Tariffs are taxes,” Eideberg said. “They are taxes on American companies and farmers.”

“They will drive up the cost of making equipment in the United States. They are inflationary, which is bad news for equipment manufacturers. We are extremely  concerned about the tariffs that are set to take place at midnight,” Eideberg said.

U.S. equipment manufacturers have a trade surplus with Canada, sending $10 billion in equipment across the border, Eideberg said, while the United States imports equipment valued at $3 billion.

Canada is the biggest export market for U.S.-made equipment, but the industry also exports globally. 

“We are an export-dependent industry,” he explained, noting that the tariffs Trump imposed in his first term increased the cost of making equipment. 

Asked about Trump’s additional 10% tariffs on China and his proposed reciprocal tariffs on countries whose exports to the United States exceed imports, Eideberg said, “All tariffs will drive up the cost of making equipment in the United States. We always try to source inputs close to manufacturing operations, but some cannot be sourced at scale inside the United States.”

Eideberg added that the first list of retaliatory tariffs Canada announced included agricultural equipment, and that a second list is likely to include the construction equipment that U.S. manufacturers also make. 

Eideberg concluded that there are “no positives about tariffs.”

“It’s baffling that our public officials don’t recognize they are taxes.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, predicted the cost of fertilizer will go up for farmers in her state, the Associated Press reported.

“This is a crazy way to handle our allies, right? He’s literally reaching out to Russia at the same time that he’s putting a 25% tariff on Canadian goods,” Klobuchar said.