News

Bacon: U.S. needs to invest in trade programs to reclaim lost ag markets

A member of the House Ag Committee says increasing funding for trade promotion programs could help expand markets for U.S. commodities.  

“We want to open up more trade doors and we’re going to put a lot of money behind it.”

Congressman Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, says the growing deficit is extremely alarming. “We have a lack of markets for corn and soybeans in particular. We have a bumper crop, but we’ve lost markets overseas.”

He tells Brownfield additional funding for the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program could help the Administration secure additional trade agreements.

But, Bacon says, the current strategy hasn’t been effective.    “The President – his position is he wants tariffs to force countries to negotiate trade deals. So far, it has not worked. You can say he has trade deals, but very little corn, soybean and pork are being bought.”

He says he’s optimistic that the trade deficit could improve if the agreements are finalized and export sales pick up.