The Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service says a Japan-EU trade agreement threatens U.S. pork exports to Japan. Japan and the EU announced finalization of negotiations on the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement in December of last year. For 2017, Japan imported $1.68 billion of pork from the U.S. and $1.69 billion from the European Union. Japan ranked as the world’s largest importer of pork and pork products in 2017, growing imports from $4.9 billion in 2016 to $5.2 billion in 2017. USDA says the trade agreement between Japan and the EU, similar to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, marks a change in trade with Japan eliminating tariffs on more than 60 percent of its pork and pork product tariff lines within 12 years. Additionally, the agreement has established a volume-based safeguard for EU pork imports that will be phased out over 11 years. USDA says larger exports of European processed pork products can be expected under the agreement, and USDA says agricultural exporters from the United States will face challenges as the EU gains preferential tariffs under the agreement.

President Donald Trump says “I don’t want to go back into” the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump told reporters “the media has not covered the TPP correctly.” President Trump however did say that “if they offered us a deal that I can’t refuse, on behalf of the United States, I would do it,” according to the Hagstrom Report. The comments follow a previous statement by the President on Twitter that he would be interested in rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, and comments made during a White House meeting last week, where farm-state senators say Trump told them his administration would explore rejoining the trade agreement. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who attended the meeting and confirmed the comments, added that rejoining TPP is the “best thing” the U.S. can do to “push back” against China. As for trade with Japan, Trump said he would prefer “a bilateral deal, a deal directly with Japan.”

House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway is hopeful the U.S. House will consider the 2018 farm bill next month. Conaway told reporters he wants to bring the bill to the full U.S. House in May, but says the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act will be taking up time on the floor in coming weeks, according to Politico. The bill faces a partisan divide as no Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee voted in favor of the legislation earlier this week. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says the bill does not include enough support for agricultural producers, and that the nutrition title proposals would waste tax payer money and increase hunger and poverty. In the Senate, Ranking Agriculture Committee Democrat Debbie Stabenow says the House version of the bill is “impossible to pass.” She alleges that House Agriculture Committee leadership has “abandoned” the broad, partisan coalition that passed the 2014 Farm Bill. Stabenow says she “remains committed” to working Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts to “write a bipartisan bill” that focuses on “farmers, families, and rural communities.”

The Renewable Fuels Association says its found evidence that RIN waivers are destroying ethanol demand. The Environmental Protection Agency has been handing out hardship waivers “like candy,” according to refining executives. The waivers grant refiners a pass on RINs, the mechanism by which Renewable Fuel Standard compliance is tracked. Renewable Fuels Association executive vice president Geoff Cooper says the credits also provide a strong economic incentive for the expansion of ethanol blending beyond E10. Thus, when RIN prices collapse, “the incentive to expand ethanol blending is also weakened.” Cooper says the waivers and other actions by the EPA are rapidly destroying demand for ethanol and corn. A settlement with a bankrupt refiner, the waiver exemption, and failure to enforce 2016 statutory requirements, Cooper says, “effectively reduced the 2016 and 2017 RFS volumes each by one billion gallons or more.”

A coordinated effort to assess and improve farmers contributions to better water quality across the nation is now expanding into an information gathering juggernaut. Professional staff members representing 11 Corn Grower Associations met in St. Louis this week to discuss ongoing efforts in their states to improve water quality through changes in farming practices. “One of the more interesting developments from this process is our contention that farmers were already doing a lot to farm smarter, this is turning into real-world data,” said Rachel Orf, National Corn Growers Association director of stewardship and sustainability. “We are gaining a better understanding of all of the work that is continuing independently in the states, and the resulting collaboration is speeding improvements as well as documenting the significant contributions farmers have already made with the environment in mind.” The series of water quality meetings, dating back to 2015, has been very focused on sharing and education related to what is going on at the state level, according to Travis Deppe, Illinois Corn Growers Association’s nutrient loss manager, because so much work is being done locally. But the sharing of projects and programs, successes and failures, with other states is eliminating redundancy and accelerating progress. Participating states include Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Virginia. “Our main concern is that our members stay profitable and stay on the farm,” Deppe said. “But we also want to make growers more aware of these issues and some of the farming practices they might want to consider adopting.”