Colorado Farm Bureau Weighs in On NAFTA

Colorado Farm Bureau Weighs in On NAFTA

The Trade Representative's office had a request for comments on the negotiating Objectives Modernization of NAFTA which closed on June 12th. The Colorado Farm Bureau submitted comments. Colorado Farm Bureau Vice President of Advocacy Shawn Martini shares more details

Martini: "Our top line message for the Trade Representative was first you have to do no harm. This is an agreement that has more than quadrupled ag trade with both Canada and Mexico over the last 20 years. It's been a huge boon for the United States ag industry and Canadian and Mexican ag industries as well. It's good for all three parties in the trilateral agreement. So our first message was really, 'Do no harm as you enter in to these negotiations. Don't broach topics that are going to provide fodder for the other countries to start using retaliatory measures or to start putting import duties on various ag commodities.' Typically when we get into these negotiates when things begin to stick and start to get intractable. People start going back and entrenching and ag commodities are always the first thing they want to put duties on in a way to gain leverage in other areas of negotiation. So that was our big push with the U.S. Trade Rep."

Martini added that they encouraged the trade representative to move quickly and try and get the negations finished by the end of the year.

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