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Peterson says China resolution should have been reached before they joined WTO

The Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee says the current trade problem with China could have been resolved prior to China’s WTO membership. Reacting to China’s additional tariffs on U.S. goods, Democrat Collin Peterson of Minnesota said trade issues with China could have been dealt with before that country became a member of the World Trade Organization. Peterson said he voted against that.

“I voted against it because I knew what they what they were going to do, which is what Trump is going after,” Peterson told Brownfield Ag News Friday. “We knew that 20 years ago.”

Missouri Republican Congressman Billy Long, who was hosting Peterson on farm tours in southwest Missouri Friday, told Brownfield he wasn’t happy with the announcement Friday.

“I think it’s time to bring this tariff thing to a conclusion,” Long told Brownfield. “I’ve been giving the president the benefit of the doubt on this; the farmers have too.”

Peterson tells Brownfield he would handle the situation by taking China to the WTO court.

“You’re going to get more good out of that than you are, I think, out of these tariffs,” Peterson said.