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Nebraska Gov. Ricketts touts benefits of trade agreement

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts says the Trans-Pacific Partnership bodes well for the state’s farmers.  Analysis by the Nebraska Farm Bureau indicates that the pending trade agreement will increase Nebraska’s annual cash receipts by more than $378 million.  Governor Ricketts says much of that benefit will come from three member countries.

“Canada, Mexico and Japan are all TPP members, and these are some of our largest existing trading partners for Nebraska products,” said Governor Ricketts on a conference call hosted Thursday by the Nebraska Farm Bureau.  “If we can pass TPP, this is our best chance at significant growth in our exports to these markets.”

Nebraska Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson tells Brownfield that Nebraska cattle producers will feel most of the benefits from the trade agreement, but the benefits trickle down.

“When beef production is doing well, normally corn production is doing well, because we feed a lot of corn to cattle, it’s good for soybeans, the TPP is good for pork as well,” said Nelson Thrusday.

Because of trade agreements, pork exports have improved from just two percent of production in 1989, said Al Juhnke, Executive Director of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association.

“Today [pork exports are] 25 percent and growing,” said Juhnke, who was also on the conference call.  “In that short period of time we’ve realized that export markets are our future.”

The Nebraska Farm Bureau analysis says that Cuming, Custer, Platte, Dawson, and Lincoln counties are among the biggest winners under the TPP.  Those counties would each experience more than $10 million in additional sales of agriculture commodities annually once the TPP is enacted, which will require action by the respective lawmaking bodies of each participating country.

AUDIO: Nebraska Farm Bureau conference call (26 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Steve Nelson (2 min. MP3)

 

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