Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told attendees of the United Fresh Washington Conference that a new trade agreement with Japan may be only days away. Perdue spoke Sept. 18 at the Washington Conference.
He said President Trump is working to expand agriculture exports even as the administration stands up to China’s illegal trade tactics, including technology transfers and intellectual property theft in dealings with US firms.
The US and Japan in late August announced they agreed in principle to a trade deal, and Perdue said the deal may be officially inked at the time of the United Nations general assembly Sept. 23-24.
The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement awaits action by Congress. Perdue said that even though southeast US growers didn’t get seasonal trade protection as a part of the deal, he said it is “chapter by chapter, verse by verse” a much better agreement than the North American Free Trade Agreement it will replace.
With the agreement in the hands of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Perdue suggested that the only reason Democratic lawmakers don’t want to move on the agreement is that they don’t want ‘to give Trump a win’.
Perdue acknowledged labor is a top priority for produce growers, and said the USDA and the Trump administration was “doing everything we can” to be part of a solution for a workable legal guest worker program. Policymakers and the public must make a distinction between broad immigration reform and a legal ag workforce/guest worker program, he said.
The Trump administration is in rulemaking that will modernize the H-2A program and make easier to use, and now offers a web page at farmers.gov to give growers an application checklist of what they need for the program.
Perdue said the agency also is working up data and messaging to show the cost/security/safety of food in the US compared to other countries.
“I want to be a megaphone talking about the success of American agriculture,” he said, noting the tools of biotechnology have allowed US agriculture to thrive. “We need to counteract this global zero biotech story we are hearing.”
Source: agweb.com