President Trump’s aggressive trade strategy of threatening to pull out of existing agreements without big concessions to the U.S. is being both defended and criticized in farm circles.
President Trump is again taking a hard line with U.S. trading partners in Asia, after first dumping TPP and now threatening to ditch NAFTA.
It’s a strategy that has many, especially in heavily trade-dependent agriculture, and in states won by the president, scratching their heads. But USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue told USDA Radio.
But, Senate Republican Chuck Grassley, who met with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer last week, is raising ‘red flags’ that the White House may invoke a NAFTA withdrawal procedure, doing grave damage to U.S. agriculture.
In the meantime, President Trump took a hard line on trade in Japan at the start of the week, scolding his hosts for the “massive trade deficits” the U.S. has with Japan, where the U.S. is looking for a deal to replace TPP. Trump largely avoided a question on whether his tough trade stance puts him on a collision course with China. He’ll visit there later this week. China’s farm subsidies and barriers to U.S. farm goods are well known in America.
from National Association of Farm Broadcasters