OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Farmers and business leaders in Nebraska and Iowa are urging the Trump administration to renew, not renegotiate, a free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico that they say is critical to the agricultural industry.
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The group, Farmers for Free Trade, convened a panel discussion to push back against administration plans to renegotiate the USMCA, a trade agreement it says works.
More than 10,000 jobs in Nebraska and 15,000 jobs in Iowa depend on ag exports to Canada and Mexico, according to Farmers for Free Trade. The group also says the current deal amount $2 billion in business for Nebraska and $3.3 billion for Iowa.
Nebraska Farm Bureau economist, Abygail Peterson, said the timing makes the stakes even higher: "On a good year we need the trade agreement. This is a bad year."
Peterson says it is one of several bad years in a row, with more expected in the near future, because cash crop prices are low, input expenses are high and a tariff war has cut off large markets such as China.
"This is a win-win relationship that we should nurture," Rep. Don Bacon said of the American relationship with Canada and China.
Bacon also weighed in on the broader tariff war.
"When it comes to ag, who's been the biggest winner of the tariff war? Brazil," he said, pointing to China's investments in the country.
Even though the current USMCA has another 10 years before it expires, ag leaders want to see it renewed as soon as possible.
"We're looking to plan in years and decades and we need certainty," said Lucas Miller, a farmer from Randolph and president of the Nebraska Soybean Association. "It has a real effect on people in our state."
Bacon says he doesn't always agree with President Trump's negotiating style.
"He likes some unpredictability. He likes a little chaos because he thinks it will lead Canada and Mexico to be more willing to give at the negotiating table," said the congressman. "And, I don't have the same view, but I think that's his view going into this."
Kaitlin Taylor, policy director for the Nebraska Corn Growers, says farmers need markets for their products.
"You know, we can talk about the numbers and the states all day long, but this is livelihood of our growers."
