NPPC Optimistic NEW NAFTA Will Improve Outlook for North American Pork Trade

The National Pork Producers Council is optimistic a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement will see the preservation of the benefits it’s afforded U.S. agriculture over the past 23 years

By Bruce Cochrane – FarmScape Online

“We’re fairly optimistic that we’re going to come out this renegotiated deal at least as good as we are now, which is pretty good for the U.S. pork industry and for all of American agriculture,” Dave Warner, with the National Pork Producers Council told FarmScape Online. “The optimism I think is there because the Trump Administration has a number of smart people who are doing these negotiations and who are letting the negotiators know on our end of things, on the agriculture side, what benefit NAFTA has been and why we need to maintain that.”

“I’m confident we will continue to trade pork with no tariffs and there will continue to be a free flow of pork between our countries”

 

In what could become the first rounds of the most controversial and confrontational negotiations aimed at revamping the North American Free Trade Agreement in Washington this week, Warner and the NPPC reassures the U.S. pork industry is hoping a renegotiated NAFTA will result in better harmonization of rules and regulations, as well as assurances that regulations that might affect trade are based on science. Yet the top priority for American pork producers is continuation of the zero tariff rate on pork in North America.

“Certainly Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has carried that message to the administration about the importance of agriculture trade and the importance of NAFTA to agriculture in the United States,” he adds. “We’re optimistic that, when the negotiations are over, that NAFTA will be updated, modernized, and will be a better deal for all three countries.”

Warner says NAFTA has been a tremendous success for the U.S. pork industry.

“I’m confident we will continue to trade pork with no tariffs and there will continue to be a free flow of pork between our countries.”

By Bruce Cochrane – FarmScape Online