Farmscape for October 16, 2017

A U.S. Coalition of coalition of business and agricultural organizations has taken its message of the value of NAFTA to Congress.
An ad hoc coalition, who's membership includes the National Pork Producers Council, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Foreign Trade Council, the Coalition of Services Industries and the American Farm Bureau Federation, met last week with members of Congress to draw attention to  the negative consequences for agriculture of withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
NPPC Senior Communications Director Jim Monroe estimates the U.S. pork industry will lose 1.5 billion dollars in exports to Mexico and Canada if NAFTA is terminated.

Clip-Jim Monroe-National Pork Producers Council:
The National Pork Producers Council represents the interests of 60 thousand U.S. pork producers.
These producers are highly dependant on trade.
Most of the growth that the industry expects to realize will come from outside U.S. borders.
Mexico and Canada are second and fourth largest pork export markets.
We exported about two billion dollars of pork to Mexico and Canada last year.
Overall the U.S. exported close to six billion dollars of pork so you can see how significant our exports to Canada and Mexico are so very very important.
It would have a severely negative impact on the U.S. pork industry.
It would also hurt our economy in other ways.
The exports to Canada and Mexico are responsible for close to 16 thousand 300 jobs in the U.S.
That would jeopardize those jobs and I think that's just one example.
The U.S. pork benefits realized through NAFTA are very similar to what U.S. agriculture has realized overall through the agreement.

Monroe says many jobs depend on U.S. trade with Mexico and Canada and significant growth throughout agriculture has resulted.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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