Zippy Duvall: Trade agreements more important than people realize

News

January 8, 2018 By Tom Steever Filed Under: News

The president of the American Farm Federation (AFBF) stresses that trade agreements are more important to agriculture than people realize.

“Trade should not, should not, be a dirty word,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall, in his annual address at the farm organization’s 99^th Annual Convention Sunday. Even those within agriculture don’t understand what’s at stake if trade agreements are lost, said Duvall.

“Without those global markets, our already depressed farm economy would get even worse,” he said.

In a news conference following his address, Duvall said President Trump told him and other farmers earlier this year that farmers would be happy with the outcome of trade negotiations.

“We’re going to work with him to try to make sure that happens,” Duvall told reporters.

2016 campaign rhetoric painted multi-lateral trade agreements in a bad light. President Trump is scheduled to speak at the Farm Bureau Convention Monday afternoon at Nashville’s Opryland Hotel. Farm Bureau leaders and members are most curious about what the president will say regarding the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which is currently being renegotiated.

Speaking at the AFBF convention about trade, Ted McKinney, USDA’s Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agriculture Affairs, acknowledged the importance of NAFTA, but when asked by Brownfield Ag News whether the agreement will remain, McKinney said only, “I hope so, but I don’t know.”