Farm County Writes To Congress For USMCA Passage

Roughly one-thousand farm and food groups have written Congressional leaders to ratify the USMCA in a clear move to step up pressure to get the deal done.  The letter to the top leaders of the House and Senate urging approval of the tri-lateral deal probably has more signatories than any letter of its kind in recent memory.  It is a loud and clear message of how desperately agriculture needs more trade amid depressed prices, lost income, trade wars, bad weather and increased bankruptcies.

“Over 900 agricultural organizations throughout the country, supporting the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade," said House Livestock Subcommittee Chair Jim Costa.  "And without objection, we will submit it for the record.”

The USDA’s Ted McKinney called USMCA a “template” for future agreements.  Costa and other panel Democrats criticized the president’s use of tariffs as a negotiating tool and challenged McKinney and Gregg Doud and others to protect Ag.

“Mr. Chairman," McKinney said.  "There is no doubt, the White House has our, and the Ag community’s, back.  And I think we can see this with many 'tweets' …we can see this in his statements, with his actions.  Now, how we’re going about it, clearly, is an issue, because we’re in choppy waters.  But, if you're asking the question, 'Does the White House have our back?' the answer is 'yes,' alright.”

McKinney and Doud rebuffed criticism the president’s tariffs have also damaged talks with China, arguing China’s kept out the majority of U.S. farm commodities.  McKinney added he’s not given up on a China deal, adding talks could resume when and if the two nation’s leaders meet at a G20 summit in Japan later this month.

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