Contact: Steve Mercer, USW Vice President of Communications, (703) 650-0251, smercer@uswheat.org
ARLINGTON, Virginia — U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) believes today’s breakthrough in NAFTA negotiations with Mexico and the announcement that the trade dispute aid package for U.S. agriculture includes new funding for export market development are welcome news for U.S. wheat growers.
“We are glad to see progress toward a renegotiated NAFTA that builds on the opportunities the existing agreement opened with Mexico’s wheat importing flour millers. We hope it spurs negotiations with Canada to resolve outstanding issues like its discriminatory wheat grading law,” said USW Chairman Chris Kolstad, a wheat farmer from Ledger, Mont. “The new market development program will help us plan new activities that will begin repairing the cracks in our crucial, long-term trade relationships with Mexico and other countries. We appreciate that the Trump Administration supports the need for additional market development in this unique trade environment.”
Kolstad said U.S. Wheat Associates agrees with the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) that while it is important to hold China and other countries accountable for unfair trade practices, policies that invited retaliation and created the need to provide federal aid to farmers are not the best course.
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