Several agriculture groups are sending letters to President Donald Trump in support of opening up trade, but with the new president’s recent exit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership along with his threats to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, some farmers and ranchers are starting to worry their entire industry will experience collateral damage as a result.
As Politico reports, American agriculture sent $129 million dollars’ worth of goods abroad in fiscal 2016 – over 20 percent of all U.S. grown food, so when Trump and free trade critics fret about the U.S.’s $500 billion dollar trade deficit, it’s often lost that American farmers run a large and growing surplus.
Invoking Trumps promise to rebuild the manufacturing sector, of which the U.S. food and ag industry represents a sizable portion, a coalition of more than 130 U.S. ag groups have sent letters to Trump expressing interest in modernizing NAFTA and encouraging the administration to reduce tariffs and trade barriers in the Asia Pacific region.
