canada

Trump Asks Roberts for Raincheck on NAFTA Discussion

DanIndustry News Release, Trade

trumpPresident Trump took a trip to visit Republicans on Capitol Hill Tuesday with a focus on finding more votes for the tax-cut bill.

However, Senate Ag Committee Chair Pat Roberts took the opportunity to bring up agricultural concern over the NAFTA negotiations.

As the president walked out of the meeting, Politico says he asked Roberts, “How are your farmers?” Roberts told Trump they’re worried about NAFTA and he’d like to talk to the president. Trump responded with, “I’ll get back to you.” Roberts told Politico he wants to work with the president to achieve his goals on NAFTA but, “We’d like to point out that starting a clock on NAFTA is not the answer.” He’s talking about an idea Trump had about notifying Canada and Mexico that the U.S. would be pulling out of the deal in six months. The goal would be to force the other two countries into making concessions in order to keep the deal alive. Roberts says that agriculture has to really come together and demonstrate what withdrawal means in terms of lost jobs and lost opportunity because of the rough economic patch that the ag sector is in.

From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.