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Wisconsin Soybean leader comments on Trump-EU purchase promise

A soybean organization leader has mixed feelings about President Trump’s announcement saying the European Union will be buying more U.S. soybeans.

Robert Karls is the Executive Director for the Wisconsin Soybean Association.  He says, “It’s very positive, but it doesn’t resolve the issue.”

Karls tells Brownfield the promise of additional sales is good, but, “It’s diverting us from focusing on who are, you know our primary customer is that we’re having a challenge with.”

Karls says China is still the big customer they want to keep, but admits there are challenges to deal with.  “We understand that we need to be sure that we don’t have unfair trade practices going on, we don’t have intellectual property (issues), those things need to be addressed with China but then caught in the mix is where we have the damage that comes forward to the United States soybean industry.”

Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker jointly promised the EU would be purchasing more soybeans soon, but didn’t outline how much they would buy.