Three largest farm groups ask governments to modernize NAFTA

By Forrest Laws, Delta Farm Press

The Trump administration, political pundits and business groups have all been weighing in on renegotiating the 20-plus year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. But what about the farm groups who have watched NAFTA help build some of their biggest markets?

The largest farm organizations in the three NAFTA partners have written their governments letters reiterating their calls that the NAFTA renegotiations should “aim to modernize the agreement rather than dismantle it.”

The American Farm Bureau Federation, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and Mexico’s Consejo Nacional Agropecuario, which represent hundreds of thousands of farmers in each country, all said agriculture represents one of NAFTA’s biggest success stories, a development that seems to have been lost on some members of the Trump administration.

In their discussions, the presidents of the three farm group presidents agreed on the need to build on the original agreement’s success by looking for ways to increase trade volumes.

“NAFTA has boosted the incomes of millions of farmers and has facilitated the development of profitable export markets,” said CFA President Ron Bonnett, whose Ottawa-based organization represents more than 200,000 farmers and farm families.

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