(Reuters) - The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would pay up to $12 billion to help U.S. farmers weather a growing trade battle with China, the European Union and others, a clear signal the president is determined to stick with tariffs as his weapon of choice in the conflict. “This administration’s tariffs and bailouts aren’t going to make America great again, they’re just going to make it 1929 again.”

The Trump administration has slapped tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijing’s high-tech industrial policies. China has retaliated with duties on soybeans and pork, affecting Midwest farmers in a region of the country that supported the president in his 2016 campaign. Trump has threatened to place penalty taxes on up to $500 billion in products imported from China, a move that would dramatically ratchet up the stakes in the trade dispute involving the globe’s biggest economies. Farmers have been a particular target in the current clash over trade policy as other countries seek to retaliate for Trump's duties on Chinese goods as well as on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico. He has also threatened to slap tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totaled $335 billion. Mr. Trump also said the U.S. will “resolve the steel and aluminum tariff issues and we will resolve retaliatory tariffs.”

The U.S. and EU, Mr. Trump said, are establishing an executive working group to hash out details on trade and assess existing tariffs “to the betterment of both.”

“We’re starting the negotiation right now but we know very much where it’s going,” Mr. Trump said. We’re going to make it much easier for them but they’re going to be a massive buyer of LNG so they’ll be able to diversify their energy supply.”
• “Thirdly we agreed today to launch a close dialogue on standards in order to ease trade, reduce bureaucratic obstacles, and slash costs dramatically,” the president said.
The White House announces $12 billion in bailouts for farmers and ranchers affected by recently imposed retaliatory tariffs.