By Bruce Cochrane.
The National Pork Producers Council is optimistic a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement will see the preservation of the benefits it's afforded U.S. agriculture over the past 23 years.
The first round of negotiations aimed at revamping the North American Free Trade Agreement is scheduled for August 16 to 20 in Washington.
Dave Warner, with the National Pork Producers Council, says the U.S. pork industry is hoping a renegotiated NAFTA will result in better harmonization of rules and regulations and assurances that regulations that might affect trade are based on science but the top priority for American pork producers is continuation of the zero tariff rate on pork in North America.
Dave Warner-National Pork Producers Council:
We're fairly optimistic that we're going to come out this renegotiated deal at least as good as we are now, which is pretty good for the U.S. pork industry and for all of American agriculture.
The optimism I think is there because the Trump Administration has a number of smart people who are doing these negotiations and who are letting the negotiators know on our end of things, on the agriculture side, what benefit NAFTA has been and why we need to maintain that.
Certainly Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has carried that message to the administration about the importance of agriculture trade and the importance of NAFTA to agriculture in the United States.
We're optimistic that, when the negotiations are over, that NAFTA will be updated, modernized, will be a better deal for all three countries and that we will continue to be able to trade pork with no tariffs and there'll be a free flow of pork among our countries.
Warner says NAFTA has been a tremendous success for the U.S. pork industry.
Source: Farmscape