ONE OF THE largest U.S. fertilizer producers lobbied the Trump administration to restrict foreign competition by imposing tariffs that are now contributing to inflation and the global food crisis, previously unreported emails and meeting notes show.
Just months into Donald Trump’s presidency in 2017, the Mosaic Co. retained Ballard Partners, whose founder was a key fundraiser for the Trump campaign, to push tariffs on fertilizer imports. With Ballard’s help, Mosaic executives secured high-level meetings with White House trade officials to discuss what they claimed were unfair subsidies for foreign importers, according to emails obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog.
The yearslong lobbying campaign resulted in the Trump administration recommending tariffs in 2020 that went into effect last year on phosphate fertilizer from Russia and Morocco, the first- and fourth-largest fertilizer exporters in the world, respectively. As foreign imports plummeted, Mosaic gained control of 90 percent of the U.S. phosphate fertilizer market.
Disclosures show that Mosaic has paid Ballard $1.49 million in lobbying fees. The firm remains on the company payroll.
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