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Corn farmer wants U.S. on good terms with trade neighbors

The president of the Missouri Corn Growers Association says he’s optimistic the relationship between the United States, Canada and Mexico can stay on good terms while trade and tariffs are being discussed.

“If we end up losing those markets, it will end up being deteremental to Missouri farms and farms in the U.S., in general.”

Matt Lambert says there are lots of moving parts.

“It seems like there’s new updates constantly coming and it’s a waiting game,” he says. “It seems like the August 1 deadline, hopefully, they can get a few things hashed out, start getting agreements and trade talks so the situation can be resolved.”

President Trump said he would impose a 30 percent tariff on Mexico and a 35 percent tariff on Canadian goods in August, unless certain provisions were met.

Lambert says he was expecting the Trump administration to use tariffs in trade discussions, but “hopefully, this is a short-lived process and doesn’t go on a long time.”

He says Mexico is the top market for U.S. corn and Canada the top buyer of U.S. ethanol.

Lambert says trade is top-of-mind for corn farmers in Washington D.C. this week at the National Corn Growers Association’s Corn Congress.