The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) submitted North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) comments to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) office this week. The comments outline the priorities of farmers and ranchers when it comes to renegotiating NAFTA.
AFBF’s Senior Director of Congressional Relations Dave Salmonsen says agriculture needs the renegotiation effort to protect current market gains and create new ones.
In an interview with AFBF’s Newsline, Salmonsen said that before NAFTA came into effect, U.S. agriculture exported $8.9 billion to Canada and Mexico and exports have increased to more than $38 billion in 2016.
“So it really shows that getting rid of these barriers, which NAFTA has done, has had an amazing impact on improving ag trade,” Salmonsen said.
The renegotiation effort, according to Salmonsen, could also improve dairy trade with Canada.
Salmonsen said he hopes through NAFTA discussions they will be able to gain greater access for potatoes and fresh fruits with Mexico.
He said AFBF would like to see some of the standards and benefits included within the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement replicated in this negotiation and hopefully more.
The primary standard from TPP the organization wants included in the NAFTA renegotiation is to make sure all three countries are operating under science-based risk assessment analysis similar to U.S. food safety standards.
“Also, we want to see included is what’s called a rapid response mechanism, cut through a lot of the red tape if products are held up at borders and get very quick, within seven days or less, answer to problems and free up shipment,” Salmonsen said. “We also have new rules for biotechnology so we can deal with approvals.”
Newsline reports AFBF looks forward to see what the NAFTA renegotiations bring for the prosperity of American agriculture.