Delegates from the United States, Canada and Mexico need to come up with a finalized renegotiated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) soon, the former chief agriculture negotiator for the U.S. Trade Representative stressed, essentially saying that time is money.
Darci Vetter, whose tenure with the USTR dates back to the George W. Bush administration and served as the chief agriculture negotiator under the Barack Obama administration, currently is a senior advisor for Farmers for Free Trade.
Vetter, during a conference call on January 26, stressed the need for a revised NAFTA, because failed NAFTA talks would be disruptive to all three involved countries.
“The U.S., Canada and Mexico – we are each others’ supplier of choice,” said Vetter. “NAFTA has integrated our markets.”
NAFTA talks a distraction
As far as Vetter is concerned, delays in NAFTA negotiations are also harmful for agricultural trade with countries outside of North America.
“Frankly, time matters, because uncertainty is costly,” said Vetter.
The former negotiator said the longer the U.S. goes without having clarity about the strengths of the relationships with its current trade partners, the better the odds that those trade partners will look elsewhere.
“Time spent on NAFTA is also time away from forging great relationships with other countries,” she said.
One example is how the United States withdrew from its involvement with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal when Donald Trump became president, but the other involved countries, including Canada, have forged ahead with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Other agricultural leaders participating in the conference call were Scott Frazier, Texas Farm Bureau member; Terry Nelson, Kansas cattle, hog and feed producer; and Floyd Gaibler, director of trade policy for the U.S. Grains Council and former deputy undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
