Even though many farmers are stewing over President Donald Trump’s moves to formally withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, House Agricultural Chairman Mike Conaway thinks Trump could get the agriculture industry a better deal.
As Politico reports, Trump’s withdrawal from TPP negotiations marks the beginning of what promises to be a new era of U.S. trade policy that prioritizes protecting manufacturing jobs in domestic industries like steel over expanding U.S. market access around the world.
The agriculture industry has long supported multilateral deals like the TPP, lured by the promise of access to numerous export markets through just one agreement, so agricultural groups like the American Feed Industry Association were quick to criticize Trump’s action
But Conaway sees Trumps plan to pursue country-to-country pacts as potentially yielding greater benefits for agriculture than the cumbersome multilateral agreements pushed by past administrations and thinks Trumps plans to aggressively enforce existing trade deals as a boon for farmers.