U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Friday that President Donald Trump had asked him to create a plan to help American farmers cope with the heavy impact of the trade war on agriculture.

A new aid program would be the second round of assistance for farmers, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s US$12 billion plan last year to compensate for lower prices for farm goods and lost sales stemming from trade disputes with China and other nations.

“While China may backtrack, @POTUS is steadfast in his support for U.S. farmers and directed @USDA to work on a plan quickly,” Perdue said on Twitter on Friday.

The trade war toll on U.S. agriculture has been heavy, in a sector that has largely been supportive of Trump. Soybeans are the most valuable U.S. farm export, and shipments to China dropped to a 16-year low in 2018, while soybean futures prices fell last week to 11-year lows.

“I think he’s finally realized that the Chinese tariffs have put a real strain on the countryside, and that if more tariffs are put on, the strain is going to get even worse,” said Tom Vilsack, who was USDA secretary under former President Barack Obama.

The American Farm Bureau Federation said it was too soon to throw its support behind the potential program, as did the American Soybean Association. But U.S. hog farmers were quick to support the idea of additional government purchases.

“It is fair and right that the U.S. Government purchases significant quantities of pork over the next 18 months to ship as food aid to help ease the financial burden placed on producers,” said David Herring, a pork producer from Lillington, North Carolina, and president of the National Pork Producers Council.

Trump on Twitter erroneously wrote that China would pay the tariffs. However, it is the importer — usually U.S. companies or the U.S.-registered units of foreign companies — that shoulder the costs.

“With the over US$100 billion in tariffs that we take in, we will buy agricultural products from our great farmers, in larger amounts than China ever did, and ship it to poor & starving countries in the form of humanitarian assistance,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

However, any funds from U.S. tariffs go into the U.S. Treasury’s general fund, and Congress — not the White House — directs U.S. spending.

“I don’t think he understands that he’s not a dictator,” said Vilsack, who is now chief executive of the U.S. Dairy Export Council industry group. “He can’t just order this to happen.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection collects the tax on imports. The agency typically requires importers to pay duties within 10 days of their shipments clearing customs.(SD-Agencies)