AFBF's Duval named to White House Advisory Panel

American Farm Bureau’s president will have input on proposed and current trade deals, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, through a White House advisory panel.  President Trump has appointed AFBF’s Zippy Duvall to a four-year term on his Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations at a time when Trump has threatened to withdraw the U.S. from NAFTA and will renegotiate KORUS, the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, with South Korea.  The panel is the main body advising the president on trade policy, and Duvall’s appointment, and former AFBF President Bob Stallman before him, gives agriculture a more direct voice on two existing pacts critical to ag’s economic well-being. AFBF trade adviser Dave Salmonsen:

President Duvall issued a statement that ag must “keep building” on its current gains and “enforce current trade agreements,” reflecting AFBF’s strong stance that NAFTA and KORUS have worked to boost US farm exports. Salmonsen was asked if Duvall’s appointment boosts the chances the US will stay in NAFTA:

Salmonsen points out that U.S. farm exports to Canada and Mexico have quadrupled in value since NAFTA took effect in the early Nineties, and Canada and Mexico are now the U.S.’s second and third-largest markets, respectively.  AFBF and others argue the loss of NAFTA benefits would be devastating to US producers, already strapped by four-years of depressed farm prices