USDA Trade Official Visits PNW

Earlier this week USDA Deputy Under Secretary Alexis Taylor spent time across the Pacific Northwest meeting with ag producers and exporters. As she traveled in Western Oregon and Eastern Washington her message was the importance of trade — specifically the Trans-Pacific Partnership as well as given Trade Promotion Authority to the President which being debated in Congress. She says trade is very important
Taylor: “Trade — particularly for farmers and ranchers in agriculture —is a net win. It is good paying jobs. It’s increased dollars in their pockets and it’s actually increased money spent in rural communities. For every one dollar of agricultural exports, $1.22 is stimulated in additional economic activity in those rural activities.”
Taylor says TPP agreement will definitely benefit our region’s ag producers.
Taylor: “Trade is vital to agriculture. This agreement with South East Asia that we are negotiating has huge potential particularly for the Pacific Northwest and the producers in Washington and Oregon and the whole region for a lot of the products they sell. If you look at the some of the Asian countries — Vietnam, Malaysia — they have huge dynamic middle classes. By 2030 — 66 percent of the world’s middle class will be in that region of the world. We need to look to consumers outside of the United States to continue a strong rural community and strong economic activity for those rural communities.”