As President Donald Trump gets set to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), U.S. state directors of agriculture are weighing in on which parts of the agreement they’d like to see fixed. Politico’s Morning Agriculture Report says the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture is a big booster of increasing trade opportunities and favors deals like NAFTA. However, they’re urging the new president to address what they call a series of unfair practices. The state ag leaders have issues with how Canada classifies all U.S. wheat imports as feed-grade, which is the lowest classification possible. They also don’t like a recent move by Ottawa officials to implement new cheese standards that make it much more difficult to get U.S. cheese imports into the province. They’re also unhappy that a recent glut of Mexican fruits and vegetables into America are driving down prices for U.S. producers. Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller spoke at a recent winter policy conference for state ag directors, saying,” We know NAFTA is probably going to be renegotiated, and we want to be at the table when that happens.”
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.