The GMO Labeling law mandated by Congress will be established by the end of this year, according to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Perdue told Organic Insider last week that despite delays, USDA will finalize the law yet this year. Congress passed a bill in 2016 that mandated the Department of Agriculture to create and implement the regulation by July 29, 2018. However, USDA missed that deadline, largely due to review delays in the rulemaking process, according to Perdue. The Center for Food Safety filed a lawsuit against USDA in August for failing to meet the deadlines. At the time, the organization said: “Trump, Perdue, and their corporate lobbyists may want indefinite delay and keeping Americans in the dark, but the law doesn’t permit it.”

China wants to end the trade war with the U.S., according to its ambassador to the United States. In an exclusive interview with National Public Radio this week, China’s ambassador to the United States says his country is “ready to make a deal” if they could find a trustworthy partner in Washington. The ambassador accused the United States of constantly shifting positions and passing up opportunities for agreement. The U.S. is engaged in a trade war with China, and the goal appears to be to suppress trade between China and other trading partners, along with implications between U.S.-China trade. The ambassador said China is “ready to make some compromise,” and even “willing to take steps to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China.” The Trump administration maintains that China is not as accommodating as its trying to imply.

The top lawmaker on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee expressed concerns this week regarding the new trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Bob Corker of Tennessee told The Hill he is “concerned about the steel and aluminum tariffs” that the U.S. and Canada both say are not connected to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. Those tariffs are expected to be addressed separately from the USMCA. Corker says “we’re still trying to determine” whether or not the overall trade agreement is “better or worse than where we were.” The deal is better for U.S. agriculture, however, based on industry response. The deal provides a greater amount of market certainty with two of the top trade partners of the United States and provides more access to Canada’s dairy market, a top priority of the negotiation effort.

The “big four” farm bill leaders met Thursday in an effort to advance negotiations of the conference committee. Senators Pat Roberts and Debbie Stabenow, along with Representatives Mike Conaway and Collin Peterson, met Thursday in Washington to advance the farm bill talks, even though the House of Representatives is on recess until after the midterm elections. It’s the first face-to-face meeting of the leaders since some political finger-pointing regarding the delay, according to Politico. The 2014 farm bill expired over at the end of September with no new farm bill in place. Regardless, there’s much work to be done as Conaway has consistently said there is no firm agreement in place on any single title of the farm bill. The farm bill is expected to be completed and up for a vote sometime following the November midterm elections, as part of a busy lame-duck session.

Farm real estate values remain near record levels set in 2015, despite a significant drop in farm income and a weak farm economy. The Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service says the value of U.S. farm real estate is a critical barometer of farm financial performance, that’s because farm real estate, including land and the structures on the land, generally accounts for over 80 percent of U.S. farm sector assets, and often serves as collateral for farm loans. After a long period of appreciation following the farm crisis of the 1980s, farm real estate values have leveled off in recent years. USDA research indicates that, in general, the substantial growth in farm real estate values since 2000 was attributable to high farm earning potential and historically low interest rates. In 2000, after adjusting for inflation, average U.S. farm real estate values were $1,541 per acre—and reached a historic high of $3,178 per acre in 2015. By 2018, U.S. farm real estate values averaged $3,140 per acre, with the leveling off in recent years coinciding with declines in farm sector income.

A clause in the upgraded and renamed North American Free Trade Agreement nearly forbids deals with “non-market” countries, such as China. The language deep in the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement marks another blow in the tit-for-tat trade war the U.S. is leveraging against China. Reuters points out that the clause, which has stirred controversy in Canada, fits in with U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to isolate China economically and prevent Chinese companies from using Canada or Mexico as a “back door” to ship products tariff-free to the United States. Specifically, the provision specifies that if one of the current North American Free Trade Agreement partners enters a free trade deal with a “non-market” country such as China, the others can quit in six months and form their own bilateral trade pact.

Republicans could push for a swift vote on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement if Congressional power swings to Democrats in the November elections. Some Republicans in the Senate are pushing to approve the new trade deal this year, if the party loses majority in the House. The USMCA will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, and if one of the chambers switches sides, some believe Democrats would vote against the agreement because it’s a “win” for President Donald Trump. Bloomberg reports not all Republicans are sure that a vote will happen this year, given that trade is such a volatile issue in the U.S. and that NAFTA has faced widespread criticism. However, Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch has said the Senate “ought to move on NAFTA as soon as we can.” The Committee is the top panel in the Senate responsible for trade. A vote this year would be part of a busy lame-duck session that would include budget bills and the farm bill.