Republican Says State’s GDP Has Plunged 6% Due to Trade War—’Troubled Time’

A Republican congressman has warned that tariffs are having an outsized impact on his state’s economy.

“We’re now in a troubled time,” Nebraska Representative Don Bacon told CNN on Monday.

“And honestly, in Nebraska, the GDP here has decreased by 6 percent over the last year,” he continued. “And it’s all about trade. It’s all about getting corn and soybeans out the door.”

Why It Matters

Tariffs have not yet made successive dents in America’s economic growth rate this year, with GDP rebounding strongly in the second quarter from an import-driven contraction in the first. Extra reprieve has been provided by the temporary scaling back of China’s duties, and tariff-lowering trade deals being struck with a handful of nations.

However, many economists still expect tariffs to create headwinds for the U.S. economy in the coming months, with certain states—those reliant on imports and vulnerable to any reciprocal actions—expected to feel an outsized impact.

What To Know

Bacon, a centrist member of the GOP and frequent critic of President Donald Trump‘s trade policies on both economic and constitutional grounds, appeared to be referencing first-quarter GDP growth figures, state estimates of which were released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) in June.

Alongside Iowa, Nebraska’s 6.1 percent decline was the worst in the nation. This compared to a nationwide drop of 0.5 percent, with 39 states seeing contractions over the period.

“What we’re seeing is basically a recession economy in Nebraska and Iowa right now,” Bacon said in a separate interview.

Agriculture plays a central role in the economies of Nebraska and Iowa, which are among the leading national producers of corn, soybeans and wheat. Farmers and agricultural experts who spoke with Newsweek recently said that tariffs could further strain the sector’s already narrow margins, both through the negative impact on commodity prices and potential retaliatory actions damaging their exports.

U.S. GDP rebounded strongly in the second quarter, increasing at a better-than-expected annual rate of 3.0 percent according to last week’s advanced estimates from the BEA. The bureau said this reflected a “downturn in imports and an acceleration…