U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer says the U.S. is talking to dozens of countries following last month’s tariff announcements, but a former chief ag negotiator says new trade deals take time.
Darci Vetter says it takes a lot of prep work before the countries come to the negotiating table to work through trade deals.
“Having clear priorities of which products or issues need to be addressed, what’s on or off the table and what trade negotiators call the modalities: the structure of how we’re going to talk about what we’re going to talk about.”
She says the Trump administration has released the terms of reference for how the U.S. and India would start talking, but not much has been said about China other than no official talks are underway.
“We’ve recently seen a hint from the USTR that they’ll be focusing on key sectors, looking at trade barriers identified in the National Trade Estimate report and the structure might mimic what was done in the first Trump administration with the phase one China deal.”
She says that’s important for U.S. agriculture, because a lot of issues for agriculture are non-tariff trade barriers.
“It’s my hope what they see is some immediate action, but followed by a program of work that would really help us dig in with those countries and resolve the barriers that take more time to address.”
According to Vetter, it’s also good to have political appointments in place before negotiations begin, and the U.S. still hasn’t confirmed a chief ag negotiator.
The U.S. has paused reciprocal tariffs for most trading partners, except China, for 90 days. Vetter says 90 days is a narrow window to get any substantial trade deal completed.
“There’s a lot of details on the number of products. If you’re talking about agriculture, it’s hundreds of tariff lines.”
Vetter says now is an important time for U.S. agriculture to reinforce the issues they want any negotiations to include and how those discussions should be structured.
EDITOR’S TAKE:
We often reference just how important trade is to American agriculture, and for good reason. For some commodities, such as soybeans, well over 50% of the crop is destined for use outside of the U.S. Overall, exports account for nearly one-third of all production in our country. So, is it any wonder that our farmers/ranchers are very interested in what discussions are taking place that will impact their ability to sell their output. And the longer the negotiations take, the more nervous they become. But as the article points out, these negotiations don’t happen overnight. Patience is the name of the game for our farmers and ranchers when it comes to trade policy in 2025.
You, however, don’t have to wait to see what the outcome will be when you put your inventory on AgTruckTrader.com®. More and more farmers and ranchers are visiting the website when looking for that new or qualified used truck or SUV. And, remember, these folks are actively looking for their next truck – equating to warm or even hot leads!
