By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor

A barrage of tariffs, declining farm income and disrupted markets have left farmers and ranchers to weather the financial storms while trade deals are brokered between countries.

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) can help settle these turbulent waters, but the agreement has yet to be ratified by Congress.

Trade groups and agricultural organizations, including Texas Farm Bureau (TFB), are working to grow support and understanding among Congressional leaders and the public for the trade deal.

Farmers for Free Trade (FFFT), a bipartisan campaign that aims to amplify the voices of American farmers, ranchers and agricultural businesses that support free trade, has embarked on a national RV tour as part of this effort. This Motorcade for Trade Whistle Stop Tour made eight stops in Texas last month.

“There is a sense of urgency to get this trade agreement passed,” Angela Marshall Hoffman, co-executive director of FFFT, said. “We’ve heard from farmers across the nation, and they’ve made it clear they need USMCA.”

The group is hoping to harness grassroots advocacy to influence legislators to vote the agreement into law as soon as possible.

The advocacy efforts took FFFT to Madisonville where rancher and Madison County Farm Bureau (CFB) leader Kevin Counsil hosted U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady and FFFT as part of a roundtable discussion about the merits of USMCA.

During the event, Brady said the agreement is extremely important for the Lone Star State because billions of dollars of agricultural products are exported to Mexico and Canada from Texas annually, and that creates several thousand jobs in the state.

“This new agreement expands the old NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and makes it easier for us to sell to more customers there and makes sure regulation is fair so there are no barriers to our Texas products,” Brady said. “For our state, this is crucial. I really appreciate not only Farmers for Free Trade, but the Texas Farm Bureau has been the leader for agriculture voices on this agreement.”

Also participating in the Madisonville panel were TFB state directors Larry Joiner and Allen Kaminski. Joiner and Kaminski discussed the positive impacts NAFTA has had on agriculture over the past 24 years and stressed the need to contact lawmakers to ask for their support in passing USMCA.

Counsil, who raises Limousin cattle, said even though there’s not as much press surrounding beef in USMCA trade news as there is on other commodities, ranchers also need Canadian and Mexican markets. The top agricultural export from Texas to Canada and Mexico is meat products, including quality Texas beef raised by ranchers like Counsil.

At the next stop, U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud joined Brady and TFB state directors Scott Frazier, Allen Kaminski and Zack Yanta at the Port of Corpus Christi. The panelists discussed the importance of USMCA for port cities along the Texas Gulf Coast, as well as farmers and ranchers in the area.

Cloud represents Texas’ 27th Congressional district, which stretches from the Coastal Bend—including Corpus Christi and Victoria, north to Bastrop County and northeast to Wharton County, near Houston.

“We’re a net export district,” Cloud said. “Whether you’re talking agricultural products, whether you’re talking major industry, it’s huge in our district, so USMCA is extremely important to what’s going on here, making sure that we have trade agreements that are going to provide a predictable environment for our farmers and create an environment where we can win.”

Frazier, who grows cotton, sorghum, corn and wheat, said around half the sorghum produced in Texas is grown in the Coastal Bend. Much of that crop ships out from the Port of Corpus Christi. He said passing USMCA is important to farmers and ranchers in the area to have some guarantees for foreign market availability.

“You can’t get this done too fast for us in South Texas,” Frazier said. “Our crop year starts in South Texas and works its way north. Folks in the Midwest are just trying to get planted, but we’re just within 30 days of harvest. So for us, it can’t happen fast enough.”

Later that day, the motorcade rolled into downtown San Antonio to host a panel featuring U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, TFB President Russell Boening, San Antonio Cham