Trade frustrations continue to build in the agricultural sector as profits fall—the takeaway from a recent Congressional trade hearing.
South Dakota GOP Senator John Thune complained to Biden Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai at a recent hearing that the White House refusal to boost market opening trade deals is harming producers. Thune said, “We’re running the largest trade deficit this year—ever. $17 billion this year, they’re saying it could be $30 billion this coming year. And, net farm income was down 30 million dollars last year and will be down they say, 39 billion dollars this year. So, thanks to inflation, input costs are going up, and commodity prices are going down. One of the things that affects commodity prices is demand.”
But Trade Ambassador Tai argues some like the UK and EU don’t want to do Ag deals, and free trade agreements don’t boost demand fast enough.
Tai said, “Market access can come more quickly, more effectively, in more agile ways, if we are looking for those opportunities to score, what we like to call ‘singles and doubles,’ to rack up the score that way, as opposed to tying up opportunities over the course of many, many years in FTA negotiations that sometimes don’t ever come into being.”
Tai cited $21 billion worth of Ag market gains over the past three years in Japan, India, and other countries. But Thune wasn’t satisfied saying “Now, you say we’ve got a different approach to trade, and I understand that approach is grounded in things other than market access. But market access is what our farmers and ranchers are looking for to open up the markets, so they can sell their products and get the trade deficit back to a trade surplus and get this net farm income back in the positive column.”
But Tai insisted some of the deficit is due to a strong U.S. economy and dollar, adding she just wished Ag leaders were as concerned with the industrial trade deficit as with the Ag deficit.
Story courtesy of NAFB News Service and Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau Washington