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NCBA stays out of Mexico tariff/immigration fray; remains focused on USMCA passage

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president Jennifer Houston says they are choosing to stay out of the fray over President Trump’s threat to impose a tariff on Mexico over the immigration issue.

“We’ve stood behind the president for taking tough stances on the issues and the tariffs and things like that,” Houston says. “Our number one priority is the passage of USMCA and we’re going to continue to fight and stay out of the rest of it—and just talk about how important the passage of USMCA is.”

Houston says she is “somewhat optimistic” about getting USMCA approved this year.

“We have privately a lot of people committing to us that they believe in USMCA and they believe in trade,” she says. “We are really going to push hard before we get into an election year, certainly…before it gets muddied with all the politics of an election.”

Brownfield visited with Houston at the midyear meeting of Nebraska Cattlemen in Columbus.