- Condensed by Lynda Kiernan
U.S. Grain Council Stance on NAFTA Negotiations
The current U.S. administration announced that it intends to renegotiate the standing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after threats of a possible pull-out.
The U.S. Grains Council has released an official statement in which the body reinforces the critical nature of NAFTA for America’s grain farmers, guaranteeing access to the top markets for the country’s corn, sorghum, and barley exports, and growing markets for distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGs), and meat produced through a livestock industry that uses U.S. grain.
After being in place for 20 years, the U.S. Grain Council stresses that maintaining this market access grain through NAFTA must be a top priority throughout the renegotiation process, in addition to maintaining other critical parts of the agreement. This includes the duty-free status for U.S. corn being shipped into Mexico and Canada, which is worth $2.7 billion per year just for commodity corn.
