Trump Administration and Floriculture: Tracking Tariffs and Farm Labor Exemptions

Each week, the editorial team at Greenhouse Grower and Meister Media Worldwide will bring you the latest updates from the Trump administration’s policies and their impact on floriculture, from labor to the farm bill to funding for anything from federal loans to research and Extension. We also want to hear from you. What questions do you have about immigration enforcement, tariffs, or other topics? Let us know, and we’ll do our best to get you answers.

Here’s our update for April 24.

Tracking Tariffs

U.S. trade policy is rapidly changing under President Donald Trump. After vowing to implement wide-sweeping duties on the campaign trail, Trump has signed multiple executive orders enacting higher levies and initiated multiple trade reviews over the last few months, building on actions from his first term. Along the way, the administration has frequently moved the goalposts for some tariff threats, spurring confusion among businesses domestic and abroad.

To help companies keep up in this fluctuating environment, SupplyChainDive.com has developed a “tracker” of tariff-related actions taken by the U.S. and its trading partners since the beginning of 2025. Supply Chain Dive will keep updating this table as new information arises.

Labor and Workforce Update on Undocumented Farm Labor From AmericanHort

President Trump indicated “some flexibility” in allowing farmers to continue to employ undocumented immigrants at their operations, speaking during a cabinet meeting on Thursday. In his comments, he suggested a framework that would allow undocumented farm and hospitality industry workers to leave the U.S. for a short period of time and reenter the country legally, a bid to address concerns about labor shortages from his crackdown on undocumented migration. AmericanHort has more resources on this topic; become an AmericanHort member to learn more.

More Headlines

How Tariffs Are Impacting Cotton Movement and Trade: It’s not just horticulture that is feeling the effects of tariffs. What do tariffs (and all the talk about tariffs) mean for the U.S. cotton industry? Buddy Allen with the American Cotton Shippers Association discusses the topic with the editors of Cotton Grower, a Meister publication, here.