Renegotiation of NAFTA Has Ag on Edge
U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer sent a letter to Congress last week starting the process of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The move comes as farmers face a forecast that calls for a 9 percent decrease in farm income this year and the fourth consecutive year of decline.
In an interview last week with the Lincoln Journal Star in Lincoln, Neb., Steve Nelson, president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau, said the possibility that the agriculture industry may lose access to foreign markets is the greatest risk facing the farm economy.
Nebraska in 2016 sold $1.1 billion worth of beef and veal abroad. And in 2015, soybean sales overseas approached $1.4 billion and corn exports $987 million, according to the state’s Department of Agriculture.
“The loss of those markets, which now encompasses nearly a third of a Nebraska farmer’s income, is a frightening prospect,” said Jordan Dux, Nebraska Farm Bureau’s director of national affairs. “The entire agriculture community is kind of sitting nervous a little bit as we try to see what the president would like to do when it comes to these free trade agreements that have been so good for agriculture.”
The National Farmers Union and dairy groups have offered their support of the renegotiation.
Source: Lincoln Journal Star