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USDEC leader says farmers need USMCA soon

The CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council says ratifying the USMCA agreement quickly is important. Tom Vilsack says, “When this conversation about a modernized NAFTA agreement began, there were 41,000 dairy farmers in the country. Today, there are 37,000 so when people talk about time is of the essence, indeed it is.”

Tom Vilsack joined USMCA supporters at a recent Farmers for Free Trade rally in Washington, and said 28% of America’s workforce is in food and agriculture, impacting 20% of the nation’s economy. “It’s an important agreement for dairy farmers and for all of those who work in the dairy industry. Nearly three million jobs are connected to the dairy industry.”

Vilsack says when comparing NAFTA to USMCA, the questions are if the agreement is enforceable and is USMCA a better deal? He says, “I can tell you for American agriculture, it’s clearly better. For the American dairy industry, it’s absolutely better.”

Vilsack says USMCA allows the U.S. to preserve the number one dairy market in Mexico without tariffs or barriers, open the Canadian market to more dairy, and prevent the European Union from monopolizing cheese names.