Farm Service Agency offices are officially shut down as of the close of business on Friday, December 28th. What does that mean for the second round of Market Facilitation Payments?

A DTN report says producers who have already certified their 2018 production acres with FSA will continue to get their payments. For those who weren’t able to get the certification completed, they will have to wait until the government shutdown is over. Up until last Friday, farmers were able to apply for the payments without having finished harvest.

While official signup was scheduled to end on January 15th, farmers are still able to certify their 2018 production until May 1st. USDA isn’t completely halted and several services are ongoing despite the shutdown. A USDA news release says, “Certain activities will remain ongoing because they’re related to law enforcement, protecting life and property, or financed through other funding mechanisms.

If the shutdown continues, the number of employees exempted from the shutdown will decrease. As funding for certain activities lessens, those activities will decrease.” Continuing services include meat, processed egg, and poultry inspection services. SNAP benefits are still going out to eligible households in January.

President Donald Trump and his advisers are said to be considering canceling the North American Free Trade Agreement to help push the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement through Congress. A ProFarmer report says if the move gets made, it may present Congress with a hard choice to make.

Marc Short is a former White House Director of Legislative Affairs who says, “It could be that he withdraws from NAFTA even before USMCA ratification gets to Congress. I think there’s a high probability of that, yes.” If the U.S. does end up withdrawing from NAFTA, it would take six months to go into effect. That gives Congress a deadline of six months to either approve USMCA or have tariffs slapped on about $1.3 billion worth of goods traded between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Emily Davis, a spokesperson for the U.S. Trade Representative, says they’re very confident that Congress will eventually approve NAFTA. “From the beginning, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has worked closely with Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate while renegotiating the agreement,” says Davis Speculation is that the Democratic-controlled House will take up the agreement around March or April.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently released a list of updated data on several small-refinery hardship waivers filed under the Renewable Fuels Standard. Ethanol Producer Dot Com says seven new waivers have been filed for the 2018 compliance year.

One new petition for 2017 compliance has also been added to the list, and all of the waivers were filed between November 10 and December 18. As of December 18, the EPA has received 22 waiver requests for the 2018 compliance year. That’s up from the petitions that were filed between November 10 and December 18.

For 2017, EPA has received a total of 37 small refinery petitions, up from the 36 it had received by November 10. The agency has approved 29 petitions so far, with seven still currently pending and one declared ineligible or withdrawn. The 29 petitions that have been approved so far have exempted roughly 1.46 billion renewable identification numbers (RINs), keeping just over 13.6 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel from meeting the RFS blending targets.

A coalition of ethanol-related groups recently filed a lawsuit against the EPA over the small-refinery waivers. Brian Jennings of the American Coalition for Ethanol says the coalition believes the EPA is abusing the hardship waivers.

The USDA worked diligently in 2018 to expand trade opportunities around the world for U.S. ag producers. Those efforts paid off as global sales remained strong in spite of challenges in the trade arena through the year.

Ted McKinney, Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, says it’s been a “rollercoaster ride this year,” but U.S. farm exports remain strong, thanks in no small part to the Foreign Agricultural Service. One of the biggest highlights of the year was the successful negotiation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

USDA also broke down trade barriers and provided more access to overseas markets for several commodities. They included poultry and dairy to Canada through the USMCA, as well as lamb and goat meat to Japan, beef and pork in Argentina, poultry to India and Namibia, lamb to El Salvador, beef and poultry to Morocco, eggs to South Africa, and dairy to Turkey.

FAS staff also worked around the globe to assist U.S. exporters in releasing hundreds of shipments that had been detained in foreign ports. USDA made sure that more than $77 million of perishable U.S. products arrived safely at their intended destinations. Among them was beef to Bulgaria, cherries to Taiwan, cranberries to China, and even lobsters to the United Arab Emirates.