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Perdue pressed on trade with Canada and Mexico

Members of the House Agriculture Committee pressed Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue on trade between the U.S., Mexico and Canada during a hearing Wednesday.

In his first appearance before Congress in more than a year, Perdue called the new trade pact between the three countries a major upgrade to NAFTA.

“From labor to ag, phytosanitary provisions to intellectual property, electronic trading, certainly rules of origin that will bring more jobs back to the U.S.”

The U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement needs to be ratified by all three countries.

In the meantime, steel and aluminum tariffs remain in place.

“And I think what we’re moving toward is a resolution over the tariffs, possibly to be replaced by reasonable quotas with which Canada and Mexico can live, and have the retaliatory tariffs removed.”

Perdue says failure to institute USMCA, which would likely result in President Trump withdrawing the U.S. from NAFTA, would be disastrous for farmers.