Trump Administration Releases NAFTA Objectives

The White House released its objectives for the renegotiation of NAFTA earlier this week.  There weren’t a lot of surprises in the document, with heavy emphasis placed on reducing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada.  One of the biggest goals that agriculture wanted was to maintain duty-free status on agricultural exports to Mexico and Canada, something included in the plan released on Monday.

An Agri-Pulse report says the 18-page Summary of Objectives also includes the need to eliminate non-tariff barriers to U.S. agricultural exports. The administration also wants to promote greater regulatory compatibility to reduce burdens associated with unnecessary differences in regulation.

That may be good news for U.S. dairy producers who are upset over Canada’s pricing policy that hurts American cheese exports and other dairy products. The U.S. Trade Representative’s plan also wants negotiators to find a way to prevent sanitary and phytosanitary barriers from blocking exports. Those kinds of barriers have been preventing America’s potato farmers from expanding exports further into Mexico.

The new plan stresses the administration’s goal of updating and strengthening the rules of origin laws, however, it doesn’t ask for a reinstatement of Country of Origin Labeling on beef and pork imports from Mexico and Canada.

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