Inside D.C.

A week of good news on trade

I read a lot about agriculture’s angst regarding President Trump’s schizophrenic trade policy.  No one’s quite sure who’s on first when it comes to trade as public statements from the White House shift almost daily on the importance of this agreement or that; will the U.S. negotiate versus “discuss” a treaty, or perhaps just an “understanding?” This White House is not the best at selling its the brand.

I’m not sure if this was intended, but trade news this week tended to fall into the positive side of the ag trade ledger.  Consider the following:

• Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue played nice in Georgia this week with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts, touring the Port of Savannah and visiting an onion, sweet corn and sweet potato farm. The visit yielded a predictable joint statement — “our agriculture differences are few” — but the best part is Perdue’s referring to renegotiation of NAFTA as “family discussions,” and the tripartite treaty as “just like a marriage;”
• Long-time ag policy veteran Gregg Doud is officially President Trump’s nominee to be the chief agricultural trade negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). The outspoken and sometimes downright blunt speaking Doud is a former senior staffer to Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Pat Roberts (R, KS), was the chief economist for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn. (NCBA) for eight years, worked with U.S. Wheat Associates, and is currently president of the Commodity Markets Council.  Ag is thrilled with the native Kansan as Trump’s choice.  Heck, even his predecessor, Obama ag trade negotiator Darci Vetter says Doud’s the right man for the job;
• The first shipments of U.S. beef in 13 years are winging their way to China under the new U.S.-China beef deal cut between Trump and Chinese Prime Minister Xi. U.S. dairy products are expected to be on their way shortly under a memo of understanding between the U.S. and China allowing FDA to certify U.S. companies as meeting China’s food safety regulatory system;
• U.S. Special Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer hit the ground running following full Senate confirmation a few weeks ago, and this week appeared before the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways & Means Committee to answer questions about Trump’s trade policy.  Lighthizer wants a quick conclusion to NAFTA renegotiations, but says there’s no deadline. His job he says is to get a deal with Canada and Mexico that cuts the U.S. trade deficit, helps manufacturing job creation and protects NAFTA benefits for agriculture exports to the two countries.  He said there’s virtually no chance the talks will fail and the U.S. will pull out of NAFTA. “We’re going to get a very good agreement, and we’re going to do it as quickly as we can,” he said. “I’m prepared to negotiate until we get a high-standard agreement;”
• Ag groups aren’t happy with Trump after his declarations last week he’ll reinstate prohibitions on some business dealings with Cuba and limit individual travel to the island nation. The National Farmers Union (NFU) said it’s “disheartening to see (Trump) complicate an opportunity to expand U.S. agricultural exports.” The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) caution in how the White House implements the president’s actions, calling the Trump move not in agriculture’s best interest.  The U.S. Grains Council, a group working Cuba for over 20 years, said the latest actions will short term set back market development for U.S. grains and oilseeds, but “we have every intention of continuing our work there to build long-term, mutually beneficial trade,” and finally,
• Lighthizer told lawmakers his office is busy identifying Asian countries with which the U.S. could develop bilateral trade deals post-Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). He’s already talked with Japan, though reports on how those chats are going are mixed at best.  Also little discussed, but talked about this week is the fact working groups have been set up by the U.S. and the United Kingdom (UK) to begin talks on a post-Brexit bilateral free trade agreement.  The first face-to-face meeting between the two countries will be held in July.  UK International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said both sides have groups “already set up to do the preliminary scoping-out work.”  The UK is prohibited from finalizing any trade deal until its exit from the European Union (EU) is completed in March, 2019, but Lighthizer says “there are a variety of things you can do that aren’t really trade negotiations that you can agree on…”

So, on balance, there’s more good trade news than bad, at least for now.  The Trump White House needs to figure out how to tell the people all about it.