President Donald Trump welcomed representatives from a number of agricultural organizations to the White House Thursday to talk about the $16 billion in trade assistance announced by the administration.

“I have directed Secretary Perdue to provide $16 billion in assistance to America’s farmers and ranchers. It all comes from China. We’ll be taking in, over a period of time, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and charges to China. And our farmers will be greatly helped. We want to get them back to the point where they would have had if they had a good year.”

During the announcement, President Trump also mentioned the pending decision from EPA on year-round sales of 15% ethanol (E15).

“We’re ensuring that ethanol remains a vital part of America’s energy future, and we increased it to E15. And that’s tremendous for, in particular, for the most part, our corn farmers, for corn. And the people in Iowa and lots of other places are very happy. I just did it recently, and I made a promise during the campaign that I was going to do it. And I don’t know if it had an impact, but I won Iowa by a lot. And perhaps it did; perhaps it didn’t. I don’t really care. It’s the right thing to do. So you’re going to be at E15, which is something, I think, you’ve been waiting for, for a long time.”

Listen to President Trump’s remarks here:
President Trump announces trade aid for farmers