Farmers Union Wants Improvements to USMCA

Last month, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that the White House and her chamber of Congress had reached an agreement on USMCA. While the National Farmers Union was happy to see an effort to update the old NAFTA, the group says that effort didn’t go far enough. They’re calling on the Senate for improvements to the deal before the final passage.

“The free trade framework established by NAFTA has dominated international trade deals for 2.5 decades, to the detriment of American workers,” said NFU President Roger Johnson. “It’s contributed to the movement of rural manufacturing jobs overseas, caused our national deficit to skyrocket, lowered wages, and eroded national sovereignty.”

Johnson said the deal doesn’t go far enough to specifically protect family farmers and the rural communities they live in. U.S. neighbors Canada and Mexico are the largest export markets for U.S. food and agricultural products, totaling more than $39.7 billion in 2018. A USDA report said those exports support over 325,000 jobs.

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue said the agreement is a big win for American workers, the economy, and farmers and ranchers.

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