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Much talk about trade at Illinois Pork Expo

The CEO of the National Pork Producers Council says he’s pleased president Trump is looking at bilateral trade agreements with the 11 countries in the Trans Pacific Partnership, now that President Trump pulled the U.S. out, “Because some of those countries are already excellent markets for us and give us more opportunity. Issue is, it takes a while to get bi-laterals done.”

And, Neil Dierks says reopening the North American Free Trade Agreement is not a bad idea, “We understand there are elements to the economy that may have not done as well as the pork industry did in NAFTA. And so we’re very willing to help do whatever we can do to improve the deal.” He says, long term, it makes a lot of sense.

“And,” Dierks says, “We also have to understand that Mexico and Canada have some desires themselves to improve their access to our market.” More than one-fourth of U.S. pork is exported.

Brownfield interviewed Dierks at the 2017 Illinois Pork Expo in Springfield.