The United States corn industry is watching trade developments in the Trump administration for negative implications for the market. President Trump has talked about reopening NAFTA, a possible tariff on Mexican imports into the U.S. and even a harder stance on China regarding currency manipulation and enforcement of trade rules. National Corn Growers Association CEO Chris Novak says in regards to NAFTA, the trade deal has been good for corn farmers and Mexico is now one of the largest U.S. corn customers taking around 23-percent of all exports.

Novak says multilateral agreements have been beneficial for U.S. agriculture. So, if the Trump administration wants to focus on bilateral deal they want to see a plan for how the President is going to advance that agenda.

He says when it comes to China, trade relations are already strained with their WTO dumping case involving U.S. DDGs. However, they’re cautiously optimistic trade leaders in the administration can ease or solve those problems.

Novak says China is also shutting down U.S. ethanol exports by increasing their import tariff from 5-percent to 30-percent.