Trade continues to be top of mind for most farmers, from TPP to NAFTA. In fact, President Trump recently signaled he may be interested in re-entering the Trans Pacific Partnership and then back tracked to say a bi-lateral deal would be best. Hiroaki Kojima, Ag Counselor at the Embassy of Japan acknowledges that President Trump and Prime Minister Abe spoke about a bi-lateral during his visit last week, but didn’t agree that was the best pathway for expanded trade.
Meanwhile, the three countries in NAFTA continue to work on re-negotiation. Michael Hawkins, Ag Counselor at the Embassy of Canada says discussions are taking place this week in the U.S.
Hawkins says the goal is to do no harm for agriculture and preserve existing trade benefits and for Canada that means supply management and the Class 7 pricing are non-starters.
He says a good NAFTA agreement will be a win-win-win.
