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Vilsack says fixing NAFTA will take time

The President of the U.S. Dairy Export Council says making changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement will not be a fast process.  “I think when it first began, perhaps some of the administration officials thought that this would be a relatively short conversation, but I think they now understand after beginning the preliminary conversations that this is going to take some time.”

Tom Vilsack tells Brownfield there is no quick fix for a trade deal.  “These trade deals are very complicated.  They involve every aspect of an economy.  They are very detailed and very technical in nature, and they require a great deal of patience.”

Vilsack says the hope in the dairy industry is that the things that are working in NAFTA are preserved, and what is not working is strengthened and changed.  “That’s going to be our continued focus to try to work with the administration (and) educate the administration on how they might be able to open up the Canadian market while maintaining the strong Mexican market that we have.”

Along with NAFTA changes, Vilsack says the Trump administration needs to establish bilateral trade deals with other countries including Japan and China as soon as possible because international competitors are already working on deals of their own.