House Ag Chair Assures Ag Interests on Importance of NAFTA

U.S. agriculture interests expressed their concerns to leaders of the House Agriculture Committee in a meeting Tuesday afternoon, and panel Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, assured the groups that congressional leaders are well aware of the importance of the 23-year-old NAFTA accord. "They all represent districts as well that have trade interests," Conway said at a briefing after the meeting. "I don't think I necessarily need to help them understand it, but certainly to the extent that the voice of agriculture needs to be there, I am doing that."The ag interests meeting with lawmakers were "pretty candid... actually, they were very candid in their comments to the members about ... how they'd like to see the administration move forward," Conaway said. Ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., voted against NAFTA in 1993 but expressed a hope the Trump administration does not "screw up" positive parts of the agreement. However, he was not optimistic about the push to expand U.S. access to the Canadian dairy market. "Having met all the Canadians, I wouldn't bet the ranch on getting anything done" on that," Peterson said. "That's been the situation since Day One."