The Trump administration continues to signal it wants changes to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Agricultural groups say any move away from the trade pact could create uncertainty for producers who rely on export markets. Nebraska Farm Bureau’s Jordan Dux says USMCA has delivered significant benefits to U.S. agriculture and should be preserved as negotiations continue.
“Our message has been very clear to the White House. We need this free trade agreement. USMCA has been extraordinarily beneficial for U.S. agriculture. And so trying to just pull the United States out of the agreement, extremely problematic from our standpoint. So again, from our standpoint, our message has been the same, it’s: do no harm. That’s what we said when the president tried to renegotiate NAFTA during Trump 1. We were pretty happy and ultimately supported USMCA. The idea that we can just pull the United States out of this extraordinarily beneficial free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, very problematic for us.”
Dux says support for the agreement extends beyond farm organizations.
“The five members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation recently sent a letter that talked about how important this free trade agreement is. It is very important. And I think folks, when you’re not involved in trade policy day to day, you don’t always see these moving pieces. And supply chains are extremely complicated. I know the automotive industry is very friends of mine to the president. But ultimately, this is a major agricultural benefit. This is a major agricultural free trade agreement. We can’t see farmers and ranchers left behind.”
While supporting USMCA, Dux says there are still trade issues that need to be resolved with both Canada and Mexico.
“Canada and Mexico have to come to the table and work through some of the issues that are legitimate that the United States has with how they do business. And so, I’m not going to say that this agreement is perfect, I’m not going to say that anything is perfect, but Canada an dMexico have to come together. And it would be real easy for the White House to declare victory if they would agree to a couple things as well. So we have to work through some of these things. Canada is not following through with their dairy commitments that they made in the original agreement. Mexico had their GM white corn ban that eventually was pushed back. But we still continue to hear how important non-GM corn is to the country of Mexico. So there’s plenty of issues to work out on both sides.”
Jordan Dux, along with us, senior director of national affairs with Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation. He says agriculture’s message to the administration remains straightforward: maintain the benefits of USMCA while addressing outstanding trade concerns with Canada and Mexico.