NAFTA

A group of Texas congressmen is asking the White House to reconsider its plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

According to The Houston Chronicle, the lawmakers are worried that the Trump team’s plans to overhaul the trade deal could permanently damage the complex network of energy agreements between Canada, the United States and Mexico.

The executive chairman of BNSF railroad recently penned an editorial in the San Antonio Express-News pleading with lawmakers, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn, not to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Leaving NAFTA, wrote Matt Rose, would end the one million jobs in Texas that rely on the trade deal. Rose noted that, in 2015, the Lone Star State exported over $125 million worth of goods to Mexico and Canada.

As the fifth round of NAFTA talks came to a close Tuesday in Mexico, the agriculture industry tried to convey the damage that would be done to the industry if a trade deal that is helping struggling sectors survive is terminated.

U.S. Senator Pat Roberts is calling for a public education campaign to help deflate claims by President Donald Trump and others that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a disaster for the U.S.

As The Topeka Capital-Journal reports, the chair of the Senate’s agriculture committee said in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that trade inspired by NAFTA had been a powerful economic force for Kansas agriculture and export markets in Canada and Mexico were essential for preventing further price deterioration in the crop and livestock markets.  

It’s no surprise to Congressman Roger Marshall the concerns his constituents have during his trips back to Kansas center on the elevators full of grain that dot the Big First district.

“Trade and the farm bill, that is all I’ve heard about now when I do my town halls,” Marshall told Kansas Agland Thursday afternoon.

On Thursday, he met with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer’s chief of staff, Jamieson Greer, to talk about some of the trade issues, including the modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The election of Donald Trump has thrown the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement into a tailspin. The President has openly derided NAFTA as “the worst deal ever.”

But, as The Atlantic noted this week, Trump won’t find many who agree with him among America’s farmers.

A couple of prominent Texas Republicans are doing their best to save American trade with Mexico, reports the San Antonio Express-News.

Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Will Hurd have been urging business leaders to try to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement, otherwise known as NAFTA.

As the Trump administration takes the initial steps toward renegotiating one of the country’s most influential and controversial trade deals, groups that represent farmers and ranchers are already waving a caution sign.

Mexico is considering a boycott of corn from the United States, in response to repeated economic threats made by President Donald Trump, reports Texas Standard.

Canada’s dairy policies may be hurting rural America,  AgNetWest reports.

In response, some U.S. dairies are lobbying the Trump administration to fight the policies, which they’ve labeled as protectionist.

According to the U.S. dairy farmers, America’s neighbor to the north is not honoring its trade agreements when it comes to milk and cheese, by adding difficulties for American dairy exports.

This story is part of the special series United And Divided, which explores the links and rifts between rural and urban America.

Rural voters overwhelmingly chose President Donald Trump in the presidential election. But when it comes to the central campaign promise to get tough on trade, rural voters are not necessarily in sync with the administration.

Several agriculture groups are sending letters to President Donald Trump in support of opening up trade, but with the new president’s recent exit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership along with his threats to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, some farmers and ranchers are starting to worry their entire industry will experience collateral damage as a result.

President Trump’s trade agenda may be on a collision course with the interests of his rural voters.

A recent Vox article suggested that starting trade wars with our allies would be “a disaster for American farmers.”

The irony lies in the fact that Trump was swept into power on the votes of rural Americans—farmers and ranchers who had grown frustrated with the amount of regulation enacted by Obama’s White House.

Donald Trump won almost every farm state in this year’s presidential election. The electoral map is a wide swath of red, stretching from the Carolinas through much of the Midwest and into the Plains.

And, now that their man has won, farm groups say they’re hoping to change the president-elect’s mind about the economic importance of agricultural exports.