The Trump Administration Is Worried About High Fertilizer Prices. Its Top Trade Official Lobbied for Them. |
Free Trade
The Trump Administration Is Worried About High Fertilizer Prices. Its Top Trade Official Lobbied for Them.
Before joining the Trump administration last year, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer lobbied for tariffs that limited fertilizer imports and drove up prices for American farmers.
Eric Boehm | 4.21.2026 1:25 PM
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(Illustration: Midjourney/Yobro10/Dreamstime)
With fertilizer prices spiking due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a majority of American farmers now say they will have a hard time securing their needed supply this year, and President Donald Trump says he is "watching fertilizer prices" closely to prevent price gouging.
But if the president is worried about high fertilizer prices, he might want to have a conversation with his top trade official.
Before joining the Trump administration last year, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer lobbied for policies that limited fertilizer imports and drove up prices for American farmers. Greer represented the J.R. Simplot Company as it successfully persuaded the first Trump administration to impose higher tariffs on fertilizer—despite the opposition from farmers and agricultural interests, who warned that those tariffs would create higher prices and potential shortages.
That part of Greer's career is not a secret. He testified in front of the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in favor of those tariffs and later represented Simplot in court as it fended off challenges to them. His connection to Simplot also shows up on his public financial disclosure report.
Indeed, when Greer was nominated to be Trump's trade representative, the resume circulated to members of Congress bragged about his role in implementing those tariffs. Greer "led the J. R. Simplot Company's successful participation in countervailing duty investigations of phosphate fertilizers from Russia and Morocco," it read.
But it is a part of his career that deserves more scrutiny now as it is suddenly—and somewhat awkwardly—very........