President Trump said he intends to win “a better deal for our country and our farmers and our manufacturers” in negotiations for the new NAFTA, and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says he’ll hold him to it. NAFTA “will be a major test of the president’s impact on rural America going forward,” said Grassley, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and chair of the Judiciary Committee.
“Every third row of soybeans grown in Iowa is exported. More than a quarter of the tractors made by John Deere are sold in foreign markets. The livelihood of farmers across the nation depends on access to markets abroad and I’m going to make sure the value of exports to farmers in Iowa and throughout the nation is well understood as NAFTA is renegotiated,” said Grassley in a statement.
“It’s not the easiest negotiation,” said Trump, speaking to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual convention in Nashville, Tenn. “But we’re going to make it fair for you people again.” Canada and Mexico account for one-third of U.S. agricultural and food trade. Ag exports generate 20 percent of farm income.
Trump’s “campaign-style speech…largely dodged one of the most pressing concerns in agriculture – whether Trump intends to blow up the North American Free Trade Agreement,” said Politico. While Trump did not reiterate threats to withdraw from NAFTA, “he also didn’t forcefully defend the pactg or commit to remaining part of it.” Former Montana Sen. Max Baucus told Politico, “The continuing specter of withdrawal is not an effective negotiating technique, particularly because right now it’s harming American farmers whose livelihoods depend on certainty.”