Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue seeks to ease farmers' anxiety over NAFTA
Jordan BuieU.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Monday acknowledged that many farmers have anxiety over the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement and sought to assure them that President Donald Trump would produce a new deal that "works best for the United States."
"We know there is certain anxiety about trade," Perdue told farmers gathered for the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual conference in Nashville. "I have great faith in President Trump's skills as a negotiator, and I am quite confident that he will strike a deal that works best for the United States."
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Perdue made the comments at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in a lead-up to the president's address later in the day.
In addition, Perdue outlined portions of Trump's plan to strengthen rural America and discussed the results of the rural task force the president established in April.
Perdue, a former Georgia governor and chairman of the task force, said the group developed over 100 recommendations to help improve life in rural America based on five areas: e-connectivity, quality of life, rural workforce, technology and economic development.
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"We have already built a record of success in the Trump administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture," Perdue said.
“While the task force worked tirelessly to identify solutions to the problems plaguing our rural communities, there is more work ahead," Perdue said in a statement Monday before his remarks. "No doubt, rural America has struggled under burdensome regulations with no voice in Washington, but under President Trump’s leadership, and with the work of this task force, we can turn that around and restore rural prosperity once and for all.”
In a lead-up to the president's address, much has been on the minds of farmers in Tennessee and nationally, particularly the president's remarks on renegotiating NAFTA and immigration reform.
The president has threatened to pull out of the 20-year-old trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, the nation's second- and third-largest trade partners, respectively, saying at times the country is not getting a fair deal.
But many in the agriculture sector have voiced concerns that placing the agreement in jeopardy is particularly dangerous now given the industry's dwindling profit margins and that international trade has kept many farmers afloat.
"I’m certainly pleased the president is coming here, that’s a good sign," Lawrence MacAulay, Canada's agriculture and agri-food minister, said at the convention Sunday.
"The U.S. trade to Canada and Mexico has quadrupled with the three countries combined, and the word is, not only with politicians, but with farmers and businesspeople right across North America, is be careful not to break something that’s not broken."
Many farmers hope Trump's discussions with them during the conference will be an opportunity for him to hear their concerns on the two issues they deem most important: trade and immigration reform.
The president has so far been a hard-liner on both of these subjects, but American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said he thinks Trump, as a businessman, will do what's best for the country's bottom line.
"I think this man is a businessman, and he understands that our American companies, including American agriculture, has to be able to move their products and 95 percent of the population lives outside of our country," Duvall said. "I think he has his way of going about negotiating and he has the best interest of the American people and the American farmers and ranchers at the heart in trying to accomplish that."
Perdue echoed these comments in an interview on the Fox Business Network’s "Mornings with Maria" show. Perdue said the president needed to let the farmers at the convention Monday know he is supportive of a fair, free trade deal.
“Obviously NAFTA has been generally good for American agriculture, as well as Canada and Mexico, and farmers understand that," Perdue said on the show. "They are also under a lot of duress over production worldwide over the past four or five years.
"Agriculture commodity prices are very low, and some break even or less than break even prices, and that puts a lot of stress on farmers' incomes and farmers' families," he said. "I think the president can convince them that while he’s a tough negotiator, he’s expecting Canada and Mexico to come to the table and have a renewed, modernized NAFTA that will be good for American agriculture.”
Reach Jordan Buie at jbuie@tennessean.com or 615-726-5970 and on Twitter @jordanbuie.