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Canada supports new tariffs on U.S. products if U.S. retracts from NAFTA

naftaA majority of Canadians support applying new tariffs on U.S. goods if the U.S. pulls out of the North American Free Trade Agreement. A new study for Canada’s CTV News Network finds Nearly 50 percent of Canadians said they support and 26 percent said they somewhat support new tariffs on American goods if the U.S. were to pull out of NAFTA and apply new tariffs and duties on Canadian goods. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said that he would renegotiate or pull out of the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico once he is in office. Throughout the election campaign, he referred to NAFTA as the “worst deal” the U.S. ever signed. 60 percent of those polled in Canada believe if Trump does retract from NAFTA, Canada would be unlikely to negotiate a better trade deal with the United States.

Still searching for an Ag Secretary

Donald Trump speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore
Donald Trump speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C.
Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore

Former Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue may be the leading candidate to become Agriculture Secretary, but the Trump transition team continues to meet with others. Politico Thursday said again Purdue is the likely nominee, the same day Indiana farmer Kip Tom was spotted at Trump Tower. Tom is a 7th generation Indiana farmer who lost a Republican primary bid to represent the 3rd Congressional District of Indiana. Members of the Trump team this week said the President-elect is searching for the “most qualified” person to run the department. Former California Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado was also considered to be the leader of the pack earlier this week. However, some lobbyists have pointed out that Maldonado supported the Humane Society of the United States in the fight over the housing for egg-laying chickens in California, according to the Hagstrom Report. Meanwhile, two more have joined the Trump USDA landing team: Russell Laird, vice president for federal relations at the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp., and Lance Kotschwar, chief ethics & compliance officer and vice president for government and industry affairs at the Gavilon Group.

ChemChina-Syngenta deal delayed

chemchina-logoChemChina and Syngenta were issued an extension by European Union antitrust regulators to comply with the regulator’s request. The EU has extended the deadline for a decision on ChemChina’s proposed buy of Swiss group Syngenta by ten working days to April 12th, according to Reuters. Syngenta said in a statement the two companies had asked for the extension to allow “sufficient time for the discussion of remedy proposals”. The European Commission opened the investigation into state-owned ChemChina’s $43 billion bid in October, saying the companies had not alleviated concerns over the deal. Syngenta said in a statement the two companies remain “fully committed” to the transaction and are “confident of its closure.”

Thursday’s closing grain bids

January 5th, 2017

St Joseph

 

Yellow Corn

3.31 – 3.37

White Corn

3.61

Soybeans

9.47 – 9.55

LifeLine Foods

3.41

 

 

Atchison

Yellow Corn

3.36 – 3.46

Soybeans

9.37

Hard Wheat

 3.39

Soft Wheat

 3.26

 

 

Kansas City Truck Bids

 

Yellow Corn

 3.48

White Corn

3.79 – 3.83

Soybeans

9.68

Hard Wheat

3.70

Soft Wheat

3.59

Sorghum

5.47

For more information, contact the 680 KFEQ Farm Department.
816-233-8881.

Vilsack expected to become U.S. Dairy Export Council President

USDA Sec. Tom Vilsack
USDA Sec. Tom Vilsack

Outgoing Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is expected to become the next president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council when he leaves office later this month. Vilsack has not confirmed the plans, but a source familiar with the intentions told Agri-Pulse Vilsack will take the place of Tom Suber, who retired at the end of the year from the Council. The U.S. Dairy Export Council is funded by checkoff revenue to track and promote U.S. dairy products. Vilsack says that until he leaves his post at USDA, he is focused on his current job with “several items to get across the finish line.” He says he has nothing currently to say about “life after the administration.” Vilsack has publicly spoken previously, however, regarding his interest in working in farm policy once he leaves USDA.

Agriculture growing weary of Ag Secretary search

usda seal logoAs President-elect Donald Trump thins his list of major nominations to make before he takes office later this month, the agriculture industry is getting restless while waiting for his pick to lead the Department of Agriculture. There’s been a flurry of meetings and rumors since his election in November, but the industry continues to wait. A nomination was expected this week and was thought to be former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, but that gave way to former California Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado. The Trump transition team Wednesday said Trump continues to meet with highly qualified candidates. Former USDA Secretary John Block perhaps said it best, saying: “It’s very risky to think you know anything, because you don’t,” according to Politico. Meanwhile, Jerry Hagstrom of the Hagstrom Report wrote in the National Journal this week that “damage has already been done,” citing a lobbyist who said “ag is going to start saying that Trump doesn’t care about us.” It is believed this is the longest wait for a USDA Secretary nomination by an incoming president since Henry Wallace, who was nominated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in March of 1933, according to a U.S. Senate historical book. While the nomination cannot come until after Trump is sworn in, most President-elect’s have announced who the nominee will be well before Inauguration Day.

Lawsuit involving Monsanto and Missouri farm heads to federal court

Monsanto(Missourinet) – Monsanto’s request to have the case filed against it by a southeast Missouri peach farm be heard in federal court has been granted automatically.

The suit filed on behalf of Bill Bader and Bader Farms in Dunklin County, Missouri, in December accuses Monsanto of knowingly marketing its Xtend cotton and soybean seeds without a safe formulation of dicamba herbicide. The suit says dicamba drift from older, more volatile formulations used by farmers caused the loss of 30,000 fruit and nut trees on the farm and $1.5 million in damages.

Monsanto has said it sympathizes with the farmers who suffered damage from drift but that it warned growers about the illegal use of dicamba and the fault is with those who used it. The company also said the benefits of the seeds to farmers’ yields were too great to wait. The companion dicamba formulation received EPA approval late last year.

Monsanto tells Brownfield it believes a federal forum is appropriate in this case. The attorney for Bader Farms told the Daily Dunklin Democrat that she will work to move the case back to Dunklin County where the harm occurred to their client.

Since June, the state Agriculture Department has investigated more than 100 complaints involving crops damaged by dicamba. The complaints, which have come from five southeast Missouri counties and northwest Missouri’s Carroll County, allege damage to soybeans, peaches, watermelons, tomatoes, cotton, peanuts and some alfalfa.

Wednesday’s closing grain bids

January 4th, 2017

St Joseph

 

Yellow Corn

3.30 – 3.36

White Corn

3.60

Soybeans

9.47 – 9.55

LifeLine Foods

3.40

 

 

Atchison

Yellow Corn

3.40 – 3.44

Soybeans

9.40

Hard Wheat

 3.31

Soft Wheat

 3.18

 

 

Kansas City Truck Bids

 

Yellow Corn

 3.47

White Corn

3.75 – 3.80

Soybeans

9.70

Hard Wheat

3.62

Soft Wheat

3.52

Sorghum

5.44

For more information, contact the 680 KFEQ Farm Department.
816-233-8881.

Canada books first trade discussion with China on bilateral agreement

ChinaTrade officials from Canada will meet with similar leadership in China next month to begin trade talks on a bilateral trade agreement. Canada’s Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland says she is tentatively booked to have her first face-to-face discussion with China in February. The planned meeting comes after Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a goal of doubling trade with the Asian nation by 2025. Meanwhile, Freeland says she hopes to hold talks with the United Kingdom’s trade secretary as the U.K. will trigger the formal process for leaving the European Union before the end of March. The U.K. will still be included in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU, despite its exit from the European Union.

Trump taps former Reagan trade official as Trade Minister

lighthizerPresident-elect Donald Trump is close to filling his cabinet after selecting Robert Lighthizer to be his Trade Minister. The Wall Street Journal reports Lighthizer has negotiating experience from his time in the Reagan administration. If confirmed by the Senate, he will take the lead in talks that could culminate in the bilateral deals Trump’s team prefers. Lighthizer will be part of a revamped team whose mission includes confronting China and Mexico, which Trump contends have taken advantage of the U.S. under current trade agreements. China is keeping a close eye on Trump’s trade plans. Last month, when Trump named Peter Navarro to the newly formed White House National Trade Council, China fired back stating: “Cooperation is the only correct choice.” Navarro has previously urged a hard line on trade with China and has made a film describing China’s threat to the U.S. economy. At the time, China said: “We hope the U.S. works hard with China to maintain the healthy, stable development of ties.”

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