European Union Trade Chief Phil Hogan says he wants to have a trade deal in place with the United States by March 18. He’s also working with E.U. leaders to offer a package of concessions including speeding up the approval process for certain biotech crops. American Soybean Association vice president and South Dakota farmer Kevin Scott says other trade deals the U.S. has inked recently have helped eliminate some of those barriers.
He says the aggressive stance taken by the Trump Administration’s trade team in negotiating deals has also helped. Scott says ASA isn’t in favor of using tariffs because they end up hurting agriculture. However long term they have been effective.
Scott says when he talks to European farmers, they want to be able to use biotechnology but their government is prohibiting it.
Hogan may be aiming for March 18 for a trade agreement with the U.S. because that’s the date higher retaliatory tariffs on the E.U.’s airbus planes are set to go into effect.
