Newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump has already followed through with key campaign promises related to trade policy - moves that have rightfully caused concern among grain farmers whose price is being supported by robust export sales of this year.
Early this week, the Administration announced it would aim to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. Monday, the president signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement negotiated with 11 other Pacific Rim countries.
These moves are intended to pave the way for new negotiations. However, in the short term - and coming soon after serious trade policy issues with China - they could severely curtail U.S. grain farmers' market access globally and open up existing export markets to new levels of competition.
TPP was the product of years of work and dedication on behalf of negotiators and stakeholders and stood to eliminate 18,000 taxes and barriers blocking the free flow of goods to 40 percent of the world's consumers.
The agreement also contained much more than just tariff reductions. Modernized rules of trade and sanitary/phytosanitary chapters were huge steps forward, and TPP was the first such trade agreement to address biotechnology.
NAFTA, enacted more than 20 years ago, is a landmark trade success story for U.S. agriculture, particularly grains.
Over the past two decades, U.S. agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico tripled and quintupled, respectively, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. One in every 10 acres on American farms is planted to feed hungry Canadian and Mexicans.
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