Why It Matters
A bipartisan push in the U.S. Senate is targeting major farm equipment manufacturers over job offshoring practices that have hit Midwestern states including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Ohio particularly hard. The effort could trigger federal trade investigations and new tariffs that would reshape how agricultural machinery companies operate in the United States.
The request invokes a powerful federal trade tool that has previously been used to protect the steel and aluminum industries, signaling that senators are prepared to use significant economic leverage against some of the country’s largest equipment manufacturers.
What Happened
On Thursday, March 26, 2026, U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, and Bernie Moreno, a Republican from Ohio, sent a formal letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick requesting an investigation into major agricultural machinery manufacturers. The companies named in the request include John Deere, Caterpillar, and Wisconsin-based Case New Holland (CNH).
The senators allege that all three companies have laid off American workers in recent years while simultaneously relocating manufacturing operations to Mexico. They argue the offshoring has hollowed out Midwest industrial communities while the companies continued delivering substantial financial returns to executives and shareholders.
The letter asked Lutnick to initiate an investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, a law that allows the president to impose tariffs on imports deemed to pose a threat to national security. The senators contend that the degradation of domestic manufacturing capacity in critical agricultural equipment sectors qualifies as such a threat.
“These companies should not be allowed to eliminate American jobs, pay Mexican workers poverty wages, and then ship products back to the U.S. for additional profit on the backs of our communities,” Baldwin and Moreno wrote in their letter. Representatives for all three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
By the Numbers
The senators cited specific financial figures to support their argument that the companies could afford to maintain domestic workforces but chose instead to prioritize investor returns.
- $18.2 billion — Amount Caterpillar has paid out through dividends and stock buybacks in recent years, according to the senators’ letter.
- $8.4 billion — Total shareholder payments made by John Deere over the same period.
- $1.7 billion — Shareholder returns paid by CNH during the period in question.
- 3,600+ — Number of union employees John Deere laid off after moving production from Iowa to Mexico.
- 220 — Workers laid off by CNH from its Racine, Wisconsin, facility in 2024, with production transferred to Mexico. An additional approximately 200 CNH workers in Burlington, Iowa, are set to lose their jobs after the company announced in January 2026 it would close that plant entirely.
Zoom Out
The request fits into a broader national debate over nearshoring, reshoring, and the impact of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on American manufacturing employment. Critics of the trade deal have long argued that it failed to prevent companies from taking advantage of lower labor costs in Mexico while still enjoying tariff-free access to the U.S. market.
Section 232 investigations have previously been used to justify sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, most notably during the first Trump administration. Applying the same mechanism to finished manufactured goods such as farm equipment would represent a notable expansion of the tool’s scope.
The bipartisan nature of the request also reflects growing cross-party frustration with corporate offshoring in manufacturing-heavy swing states. Rural communities across the Midwest that depend on industrial employment have seen repeated rounds of plant closures and workforce reductions at major equipment manufacturers over the past decade, a trend that has become a persistent political issue regardless of party affiliation.
What’s Next
The Commerce Department has not yet indicated whether it will open a formal Section 232 investigation. If an investigation is launched, it typically involves an assessment of national security implications followed by a report to the president, who then has authority to act on any recommended tariffs or trade restrictions.
Baldwin and Moreno are expected to continue pressing the issue publicly, and additional senators from affected Midwestern states could join the effort. Any resulting tariffs on farm equipment imports from Mexico would likely face legal challenges and could affect ongoing USMCA trade relations between the United States and Mexico.
No timeline for a Commerce Department response has been made public as of the date of the senators’ letter.