The Biden administration has said on multiple occasions they will change the American trade policy in place over the past four years. However, Brian Kuehl of Farmers for Free Trade said doing so will take time.

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“We certainly are hopeful. We don’t want to get everyone’s hopes up too high though. I think it’s going to be a process. We don’t expect that the Biden administration will come in and instantly lift the tariffs and everything will go back to pre-trade war. But we’re hopeful that over 2021 into 2022 we’ll see a gradual thaw of some of these relationships that got hammered pretty hard.”

Beyond trade war issues, Kuehl said Farmers for Free Trade is advocating for a return to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, negotiated by the Obama Administration.

“Unfortunately, on President Trump’s second day in office, he pulled us out of that trade agreement. The 11 other countries that were part of the trade agreement, they continued on, and they’ve set up their own trade pact without us. So, we’re going to have to ask them to join it and it’s unclear whether President Biden would want to join on the terms that President Obama had negotiated or whether he’d want to reopen some issues.”

TPP is now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Other trade issues include BREXIT, which Kuehl said should provide opportunities for the United States with Great Britain. However, he noted, many key hurdles remain when it comes to possible trade with the European Union.

Other matters Kuehl would like to see addressed include enforcement issues for dairy trade with Canada under USMCA, and reforms to the World Trade Organization, while still being a member of the WTO.

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