U.S. ethanol producers will ask the Trump administration to intervene in a trade dispute with Brazil as tensions between the industry and foreign competitors continue to escalate.The Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy and the U.S. Grains Council said in a statement Thursday the government should "take immediate action and consider all avenues to encourage Brazil" to revoke or at least ease the 20 percent tariff on ethanol imports from the U.S. it announced last month.The groups are drafting a letter that they plan to send to USDA and the U.S. Trade Representative, requesting the agencies consider the tools that they have under World Trade Organization rules, Growth Energy Chief Executive Emily Skor said. More than $750 million in U.S. exports and jobs are at stake, the groups said.How the Trump administration responds will be closely watched, given President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his support for the domestic ethanol sector both during the campaign and once in office. "My members are looking at how this president campaigned," Skor said. "Based off of that, there is a hope, and I would add, an expectation, that this government will do everything" it can to help. Last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the president had assured him that he is "pro-ethanol."Commerce's Ross: NAFTA Withdrawal If 2.0 Talks Fail 'Right Thing' To Do
Withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if the 2.0 talks do not produce a successful outcome would be the "right thing" to do, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Friday (September 8)."The president has made clear that if they don't work, he's going to pull out ... and really, that's the right thing," Ross said at an event hosted by the Washington Post. "We need fixes to this deal. It has not worked the way that it was intended to."Even though the 2.0 talks are in their early stages, Ross indicated the end of 2017 is still viewed as a deadline for the talks. The process cannot drag on "too long," Ross noted, given that elections in all three countries could become factors in the talks along with expiration of U.S. Trade Promotion Authority (TPA)."As you get closer to all of those political dates, the ability to get anything done will go down," Ross observed. "So there's no fine line, magic tape, but more or less by the end of the year is probably where we're going to need to know where we are."
Welcome
