VANCOUVER, Wash.—The Trump administration’s goal to reduce trade deficits by renegotiating the North American Freed Trade Agreement could have unforeseen and harmful consequences for farm exports, a former trade official in the Obama administration said Monday.
Darci Vetter, who was the chief U.S. agricultural negotiator from 2014 until January, told delegates at the U.S. Grain Council’s annual meeting that using NAFTA to close trade gaps with Canada and Mexico could entangle farm products in broad disputes.
“Personally, I think that’s a misplaced objective for a trade agreement,” she said. “I don’t believe the trade deficit is the way of measuring whether we’re winning or losing on trade.”
Vetter’s keynote address to the Grains Council came two weeks after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer released the administration’s objectives for NAFTA talks scheduled to start Aug. 16. Lighthizer listed trade-deficit reduction as the No. 1 goal.
Lighthizer noted the 23-year-old trade agreement has opened markets for U.S. farmers and ranchers, but added that NAFTA also has led to closed factories and displaced workers.
Besides trade-deficit reduction, the Trump administration says it wants to maintain tariff-free trade for farm goods and reduce non-tariff barriers by speedier resolutions to food-safety disputes.
Vetter said the administration’s goals for agriculture are “pretty much OK.” But President Donald Trump’s position on trade deficits suggests negotiations won’t be finished this year, she said.
“What we have during this negotiating period is uncertainty, and uncertainty is costly,” she said.
Source: www.capitalpress.com