American Farm Bureau Federation on Trade Pt 2

American Farm Bureau Federation on Trade Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. We talked yesterday about the importance of getting the USMCA ratified and through Congress as soon as possible.

American Farm Bureau Federation Vice President, Scott VanderWal says the other elephant at the trade table is China …

VanderWal … “We are getting a little bit of good news once in a while. A lot folks are saying that we’ve been hearing that, you know, every month for the last two years so really it comes down to results. Show us something concrete, but yeah, we’re hopeful and very supportive of going back to the table with China and we need to get something put together with them.”

But, VanderWal says Chinese commerce is so different and our cultures are so terribly much, negotiations are very difficult …

VanderWal … “Well, yeah, and we need to realize we need each other. They need our products. They need soybeans, pork, all those different things and, of course, we need the stuff that they send this way. So, it gets down to brass tacks and the original intent of international trade. You sell what you have extra of and you buy something that you don’t necessarily do so well yourself.”

From the Federation’s perspective, VanderWal says they’re doing what they can to help push things along …

VanderWal … “We continue to work with the Administration and our trade officials and I believe their hearts are in the right place and they’re really trying. There’s all kind of countries we could go to and work on deals and once we get the USMCA ratified, we can go and say we did a deal with our neighbors, now we hope to get the credibility to go to others and say we want to work with you too and we’re serious about this.”

VanderWal says the deal ratified recently by Japan was a step in the right direction and hopes it will give us the momentum to push through deals with other nations.

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