White House says US seeking fertilizer from Venezuela, Morocco
WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is looking for other sources of fertilizer, including from Venezuela and possibly Morocco, because of shipping restrictions from the ongoing Iran war, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Tuesday.
“We … have given licenses to Venezuela to produce more fertilizer. We’ve been in talks with Morocco,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” calling it “an insurance policy against disruption” for U.S. farmers.
“I’m not saying we can eliminate the disruptions that have been experienced so far, but we can minimize them,” Hassett told CNBC in an interview.
Fertilizer supplies have dwindled as the US-Israeli war against Iran has cut off critical supplies of nitrogen fertilizer from the Gulf to the world’s farmers, with prices rising by more than a third in recent weeks.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas floated the idea of copying a UN-brokered agreement that removed grain from Ukraine in wartime. This allows Ukraine to export grain, foodstuffs and fertilizer through the Black Sea without civilian ships coming under attack from Russia. He said he had spoken to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about the idea and that the UN was “working on it”.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Susan Heavey, Editing by Michelle Nichols)
