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Nebraska farmer questions Trump’s China tactics

Bart Ruth (photo courtesy efworld.org)

While many farmers agree that trade issues with China needed to be addressed, some disagree with the tactics used by President Trump.

Nebraska farmer Bart Ruth, a former president of the American Soybean Association, says many of those issues could have been addressed by working with allies within the World Trade Organization.

“There’s some mechanisms within the WTO, which this administration unfortunately kind of denigrates and really doesn’t look to the WTO for answers,” Ruth says. “The TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) has some mechanisms in place that would have addressed some of the Chinese concerns, too—and we backed out of that.”

Ruth says it’s been discouraging to see all the hard work—and dollars—that have gone into developing the Chinese market, “tossed aside”.

“That’s the discouraging part. It didn’t have to happen,” he says. “Obviously there are some long-term concerns with China and their trading practices and intellectual property. But I think we could have addressed that without going the tariff route.

“That’s in the past. Now we need to move forward.”

Ruth raises corn and soybeans near Rising City, Nebraska. He is also chairman of the 25x’25 renewable energy alliance. He spoke with Brownfield at the recent Nebraska Soybean Day event in Wahoo.

AUDIO: Bart Ruth

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