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US and UK ag officials want a free trade deal

NASDA CEO Ted McKinney says state agriculture directors, secretaries, and commissioners continue to send a message to the administration that ag trade is critical. 

Speaking with Brownfield during the recent Agricultural Summit by First Farmers bank in Trust, he said, “anything we can do to get more attention on trade starting with a free trade agreement with the UK. They want one so badly. It might be missed opportunity if it goes on much longer (without a trade deal).”

The United Kingdom’s Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey told attendees of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture Winter Policy Conference that the U.K. is committed to work closely with the U.S. to promote global food security and sustainable food production.

She says the U.S has been a leader in developing trade, sustainability, and innovation in agriculture.  

“The US and the UK are in a perfect position to develop a partnership on this even further in the months and years ahead,” she says. 

She says the trade relationship between the two countries is valued at more than $250 billion. 

“Together we are stronger, we are more resilient,” she says.  “And that collaboration, those high standards that we share builds our trust in each other, which of course, helps us trade with each other.”

International trade is a primary policy focus for NASDA in 2023. NASDA is asking Congress and the Biden Administration to leverage existing trading relationships, secure new trade agreements, fully fund trade promotion programs, and engage with global trade institutions.

Coffey’s visit to the Winter Conference marks the first time a foreign minister addressed the NASDA delegation during this meeting.