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McKinney says new chapters in USMCA agreement important for other trade deals

USDA’s Undersecretary for Ag and Foreign Affairs says something new in the USMCA trade agreement is a chapter on biosciences and biotechnology.  Ted McKinney says, “It’s huge.  It’s the template by which we’ll follow other trade agreements, and the rewrite of the sanitary-phytosanitary chapter is huge.  We’ve tightened that up so we have a template to take around the world.”

Ted McKinney tells Brownfield the USMCA agreement is a bigger deal than many realize, and wheat farmers should benefit from the new chapters.  “Wheat on one side of the Canadian border was treated as feed-grade, and the same wheat on the Canadian side was food-grade.  There’s a big difference in price.”

McKinney is optimistic the USMCA trade agreement will be ratified by Congress.  He spoke to Brownfield at the NAFB convention in Kansas City.