Fair trade is important to farmers
Trade wars have been in the national news in recent months. For those in the Imperial Valley, we may think that those discussions will have little to no impact on the agricultural products grown here. It seems to be limited to soybeans, pork and industrial products, such as steel and aluminum. We, however, are part of the larger world and the trade wars could have an impact on our exports.
We do export our crops. The Imperial County Ag Commissioner issued 19,264 federal certificates for export in 2017, up from 19,002 certificates in 2016. While we tend to think the majority of these exports are hay and straw (alfalfa comes to mind), 32.8 percent of them were for vegetables and another 11.4 percent of them for seed. The primary countries for export of our local crops were Japan (37.1 percent), Mexico (34.9 percent), South Korea (9.9 percent), China (4.4 percent) and Canada (4.1 percent). So, you can see the balancing that is the goal in these international discussions that may impact our ability to trade fairly does have some concern to our growers.
In the most current news as of this writing, a deal has been outlined between Mexico and the United States, with discussion with Canada still uncertain. Additionally, through the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, the government has established a $12 billion package for the entire U.S. agricultural community as a mitigation effort.
Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers and an individual well known here, recently published the following article on that mitigation package. With permission, I have included it for your reading:
“In a recent interview on AgriPulse’s Open Mic show, I reiterated my support for President Trump’s stated objectives on recasting American trade policy. The international trade playing field is fundamentally unfair to the U.S., and many countries have for decades taken advantage of us. It is imperative that the administration seek fairer trade agreements for American companies — and the millions of Americans who go to work at these companies every day.
“As we now see so starkly, the means to achieve this end are causing serious economic turmoil. America is now quite clearly in the midst of a trade war with China, and we are edging closer to more serious conflicts with other nations implementing their own retaliatory tariffs. China and other nations are targeting American farmers, and if this continues for a prolonged period of time, we risk losing established and emerging markets for American fruit, vegetable and tree nut products. Farmers in other countries can and will fill the vacuum left by our trade policies, for most commodities. Once China and other export markets find replacement suppliers, it will be extremely difficult to dislodge them, even after we reach new and presumably fairer trade agreements. “President Trump and his team are well aware of these harsh realities. We have made sure of that. Our urgent plea has been and will continue to be this: We understand and support the administration’s goal to forge new and fairer trade agreements, but those new agreements will only benefit American farmers if they haven’t permanently lost their relationships with foreign buyers.
In other words, we urgently need the administration to drive this process to conclusion quickly.
“In the short term, realizing we will never be made whole, we need effective and immediate mitigation of the economic damage being inflicted on our producers. President Trump promised to not let American farmers ‘be the casualties if this trade dispute escalates.’
“Late last month, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced a $12 billion trade mitigation plan. Of the three programs envisioned as part of this relief package, only the Food Purchase and Distribution Program has the potential to deliver some mitigation to the fresh produce industry. Even so, questions remain about how much of the roughly $2.5 billion allocated for this program will go to purchase surplus fruits, vegetables and tree nuts, and how close to regular market values producers will receive for these agricultural goods. There is also the hope that we can receive direct payments as other commodities will.
“We’ll keep working with the administration on this as we press for the more critical need: a rapid and successful conclusion to our trade conflicts and the restoration of commerce between American farmers and buyers across the globe.”
This $12 billion package as a mitigation effort, for vegetables and fruits, as well as some of the other export crops and the manner in which it will be allocated over the entire U.S. agricultural community remains unclear. Farmers need to make decisions on what to plant now. Actually, we are well past the decision point for the majority of the vegetable crops. We do need a quick solution. Any prolonged trade war makes our business even more difficult. Starting with the seeds to be purchased, these delays and uncertainly will have a ripple effort for our $4.5 billion economy. We support the statements made by Mr. Nassif for a quick solution. We, however, in that solution, should require the ability to sell our products fairly rather than a mitigation hand out.