WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump announced Monday a new $12 billion financial assistance plan for America's farmers who have been adversely impacted by his global tariff campaign.

Trump said the funding will come from tariffs he has imposed on global trading partners, saying during a roundtable event at the White House that "maximizing domestic farm production is a big part of how we will make America affordable again and bring down grocery prices for American families."

"I'm delighted to announce this afternoon that the United States will be taking a small portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars we receive in tariffs," he said. "We're going to use that money to provide $12 billion in economic assistance to American farmers."

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said $11 billion will be used for one-time payments to US row crop farmers while the remaining $1 billion will be held back "just to ensure that we are covering." Rollins said officials are "working to best understand" how best to help specialty crop farmers as well.

Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on nations across the globe since he assumed office in January, seeking to ramp up pressure on trading partners to broker new status quos in the US's trade relations.

China, for its part, had increasingly turned to other trade partners for its agriculture imports, particularly soybeans, before Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October. Following that sit-down, Trump announced that China agreed to resume purchases of American soybeans.

Trump said during Monday's event that China is now "buying a tremendous amount of soybeans."

"I spoke with President Xi recently, very recently, and I think he's going to do even more than he promised to do. So I think the relationship is a very good one," he said.