Trans-Pacific Partnership

Speaking to a farm conference, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said China's adherence to its commitment to buy mammoth quantities of U.S. farm exports will be a test of the Asian nation's place in global relations. While China has buoyed commodity prices with its purchases, it is not on track to meet the goal of importing $43.6 billion worth of U.S. food, agricultural, and seafood products by the end of December.

Japanese beef producers will be hit the hardest by their nation's agreement to reduce tariffs on U.S. food and agriculture products, according to an estimate by the government in Tokyo. The package calls for Japan to reduce or eliminate tariffs on $7.4 billion worth of U.S. ag exports beginning on Jan. 1.

When Japan and the United States begin a new round of trade talks, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, they should be in the format of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the free trade agreement that was the bête noire of President Trump’s campaign.

A growing number of farmers and rural advocates say President Trump's trade and rural infrastructure proposals would further damage the struggling farm economy, despite his vow to boost rural America through renewed investment.

A year to the day after President Trump pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, the remaining 11 nations, which include Australia, Japan, Canada, and Mexico, completed a free trade agreement of their own.

Exports generate an important part of U.S. farm income, yet they are jeopardized by President Trump's decision to renegotiate NAFTA and his threats to cancel the U.S.-Korea trade pact, writes former agriculture secretary Dan Glickman in an essay in The Hill newspaper. "These two threats alone have serious potential implications for the health of American agriculture, which is so dependent on agriculture exports.

President Trump’s new threat to terminate NAFTA, made during a rally in Phoenix, is a negotiating tactic rather than a serious possibility, said Canadian and Mexican officials. “This was always a card we knew the president would likely play . . . it may have been a bit earlier than expected,” a Canadian official told Reuters.

For decades, the United States has been the world's largest agricultural exporter, but the title is becoming harder to maintain, says the Wall Street Journal. "America's share of global corn, soybean and wheat exports has shrunk by more than half since the mid-1970s," it says, pointing to USDA data, adding that soybeans "make up about 40 percent of world exports, down from more than 70 percent three decades ago."

President Donald Trump plans to meet the leaders of Canada and Mexico soon "to start renegotiating on NAFTA, on immigration and on security at the border," reported Reuters. After China, the U.S. neighbors are the top markets for U.S. farm exports, forecast to buy 29 percent of ag exports and be the source of 44 percent of U.S. agricultural imports, so farm groups want to avoid adverse effects of reworked rules.

Congressional leaders have said repeatedly that they won't call the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement for a vote in the post-election session, but farm groups are undeterred in pushing for action, said Feedstuffs. "The TPP has huge potential benefits for soybean farmers," said Richard Wilkins, president of the American Soybean Association, both in exports and in higher domestic demand for livestock feed to satisfy the growing foreign demand for meat.