Tri-National Agricultural Accord – Denver, CO – October 17-19

Last week Gary attended the 2017 Tri-National Agricultural Accord in Denver. Sponsored by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), this annual meeting of the chief state and provincial agricultural officials of Canada, the United States, and Mexico was a unique opportunity to collaborate on a host of agriculture, trade, and development issues. Gary addressed delegates and attendees on October 18, where he discussed the future of NAFTA, as well as food safety, transportation, cross border movement, and other opportunities and challenges for agriculture in North America.

At the end of the Accord, NASDA and their counterparts from Mexico and Canada released a statement stressing the necessity of NAFTA for agriculture and calling on their respective federal governments to ensure a modernized NAFTA does not harm agriculture, which you can read here.

U.S. Food and Agriculture Dialogue for Trade – Washington, D.C. – October 20

The U.S. Food and Agriculture Dialogue for Trade met last week at the American Farm Bureau Federation for a briefing from USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney and Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Jason Hafemeister. Under Secretary McKinney spoke about how he hopes to approach the role now that he is confirmed by the Senate and solicited input from industry representatives on all issues in his portfolio, including NAFTA and KORUS negotiations.

2018 MAP Allocation

On Wednesday, October 18 NAEGA received word that its 2018 Unified Export Strategy (UES) application with the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been accepted and NAEGA will receive funding under the Market Access Program (MAP) in 2018. MAP funding in 2018 for NAEGA will be limited to a $343,200 ceiling, $3,188 less than its 2017 ceiling.

A copy of NAEGA’s 2017 UES application is available here. For more information, please contact Ryan.

NAFTA Trucking Letter

This week NAEGA joined a multi-association letter coordinated by the National Retail Federation urging Ambassador Lighthizer not to eliminate NAFTA’s trucking provisions in any renegotiated NAFTA agreement. The letter requests that Ambassador Lighthizer recognize that companies depend on efficient border crossings to remain competitive, and that increasing trade in both directions is putting more and more pressure on our southern border land ports. Allowing Mexican trucks access to U.S. roads increases efficiency in border areas and alleviates truck traffic out of the commercial border zones

You can read a draft of the letter here.