Mexico
The ‘new NAFTA’ inspires anxiety on both sides of the border
At a House Agriculture Committee hearing on “opportunities for agriculture” through the renegotiation of NAFTA, an array of farm and trade groups testified that customers, especially in Mexico, are hedging their bets about access to U.S. farm exports and looking for alternative suppliers.
House Judiciary chair aims for new agricultural guestworker program
During his time as House Agriculture chairman a decade ago, Rep. Bob Goodlatte says he learned firsthand that the H-2A agricultural guestworker program is outdated and should be replaced. Now the House Judiciary chairman, Goodlatte says he will sponsor a bill for a new guestworker program that, in addition to foreign workers recruited to work in America, could cover the tens of thousands of undocumented farmworkers already in the country — but with no pathway to permanent legal status.
White House says it will knock down NAFTA barriers
The White House cleared the way to begin renegotiation of NAFTA as early as Aug. 16 by listing its goals for the talks; in short, "The new NAFTA must continue to break down barriers to American exports." The administration scored Canada for blocking access to its dairy, wine and grain markets, "barriers that the current agreement is unequipped to handle."
Trump meets with his ‘friend,’ Mexican President Nieto, for the first time
While in Hamburg, Germany, for the G20 summit, President Trump met with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, for the first time since the start of the American leader’s term. Nieto’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, predicted that NAFTA talks with begin August 16.
Japan edges Mexico for No. 1 spot as U.S corn buyer
With the Trump administration pursuing a re-negotiation of NAFTA, Mexico is scaling back its purchases of U.S. corn, which has allowed Japan to become the top market for U.S. corn exports, said Bloomberg. Mexico has looked into corn imports from South America after President Trump made Mexico his chief NAFTA target and drove down the value of the peso.
Is a slowdown in U.S. soy, corn and poultry sales to Mexico a signal of the future?
"Faltering trust between trading partners on both sides of the border" may be slowing U.S. farm export to Mexico as the nations prepare to renegotiate NAFTA , says Farm Futures. It says that U.S. exports of corn, soybeans and chicken meat to Mexico declined during the first four months of this year, a period when the new Trump administration floated the idea of a border tax and when U.S.-Mexico relations soured.
Lighthizer says there’s no deadline for the new NAFTA
The Trump administration has a target for beginning the renegotiation of NAFTA — mid-August — but there is no deadline for wrapping up discussions, assuming that talks are fruitful, said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. "We're going to get a good agreement, one that is transformative," Lighthizer told the Senate Finance Committee.
NAFTA is mutually beneficial, say ag ministers, but needs to be ‘modernized’
President Trump calls NAFTA a bad deal for the United States and insists it needs a major overhaul. But today the agriculture ministers of Canada, Mexico, and the United States said that while the agreement should get an update, it has been beneficial for North America’s farmers and ranchers.
U.S. sugar group says it now supports sweetener deal with Mexico
A trade group for U.S. sugar growers and processors, after objecting a week ago to a tentative U.S.–Mexico agreement on sweetener trade, said the pact was strengthened in follow-up negotiations and that it now supports the deal.
U.S. and Mexico agree on sugar-trade rules
There are still details to work out but the commerce ministers of Mexico and the United States announced an agreement in principal on sweetener trade after negotiations stretched a day past the U.S. deadline for a deal. The tentative agreement takes off the table a long-running dispute as the Trump administration prepares its proposals for revising the North American Free Trade Agreement.
With NAFTA on the horizon, U.S. deals with Canada and Mexico ag issues
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue went north and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross looked south as the Trump administration focused on North American food and farm trade issues. Based on "quite meaningful" progress, Ross allowed an additional 24 hours to complete a deal on sugar imports from Mexico, while Perdue discussed the future of two-way farm trade with Canadian Agriculture Minister Lawrence Macaulay.
Farm groups to White House: Don’t hurt us in NAFTA renegotiation
With its trade team in place, the Trump administration announced it will renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, fulfilling a campaign promise by the president. Canada and Mexico are two of the three leading markets for U.S. farm exports so U.S. farm groups hope for gains in the talks but fear disruptions.
Arizona farm accused of mistreating guest workers from Mexico
The U.S. Department of Labor is charging Santiago Gonzalez, the owner of G Farms in El Mirage, Ariz., with housing roughly 70 Mexican workers in dangerous conditions and paying them below the legal minimum.
Now Trump says he’ll renegotiate NAFTA. Or maybe not.
After rattling the nerves of the farm sector, President Trump said "we're going to give re-negotiation a good strong shot," rather than abandoning the North American Free Trade Agreement. "I decided rather than terminating NAFTA, which would be a pretty big, you know, shock to the system, we will re-negotiate," Trump told reporters while meeting Argentine President Mauricio Macri.
Farm groups urge Trump to preserve NAFTA
The Trump administration is mulling a draft executive order to pull the U.S. out of NAFTA, says a senior White House official, according to Reuters. NAFTA renegotiations were expected to start in August, but a withdrawal by the U.S. could rush the timeline.
Trump broadens attack on Canada and NAFTA, calls it ‘a disaster for our country’
Two days after accusing Canada of stifling U.S. dairy exports, President Trump said, "what they've done to our dairy farm workers is a disgrace," and added: "[W]e're going to get to the negotiating table with Canada very, very quickly" to re-write NAFTA. In Toronto, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he anticipated "a thoughtful, fact-based conversation on how to move forward in a way the protects our consumers and our agricultural producers."
A U.S.-Mexico cultural exchange of sorts for Wisconsin farmer and his workers
For dairy farmer John Rosenow, diversity in his hometown of Cochrane, Wis., near the Mississippi River "was whether you were Polish or Norwegian." Rosenow resisted hiring foreign workers but eventually ran out of options and began hiring workers from Mexico, says Marketplace. The story describes how Rosenow ended up making nine trips to coastal Veracuz "to better understand the language and culture of his workers."
Mexico sees trade deal with Argentina on ag products by end of year
Mexico’s deputy trade minister, Juan Carlos Baker, said that a trade agreement with Argentina involving cars and agricultural products could be completed by the end of this year.