“Put this one in the bag and keep hunting for more,” says Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue of the signing of an updated trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea. President Trump signed an updated United States-Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement, known as KORUS, Monday. Perdue says of the agreement that it adds to the “the momentum building for President Trump’s approach to trade.” In his statement, Perdue says that he is optimistic “the dominoes will continue to fall,” referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement, and new agreements with the European Union, Japan and even China. The new KORUS agreement is a “better deal for the entire United States economy, including the agricultural sector,” according to Perdue. The White House says the agreement is a sign that President Trump has “fulfilled his promise” to fight for American workers and businesses in an amended trade deal with South Korea.

The European Commission released a report that says American farmers are now supplying more than half of the European Union’s soybeans. Over a 12-week period from July through mid-September, U.S. soy exports to the EU were 133 percent higher than the same time period in 2017. Politico says the U.S. supplied 25 percent of the EU’s soybeans needs from July through mid-September in 2017, with that number growing to 52 percent of the EU’s soybeans in 2018. While the increase in soybean exports does provide some relief to American farmers, it still can’t replace all of the lost soybean sales to China. The U.S. exported roughly $587 million worth of soybeans to Europe during that 12-week period, which calculates out to $2.5 billion on an annual basis. China bought $12.3 billion worth of U.S. soybeans in 2017. That’s 60 percent of all U.S. soybean exports. As farmers know firsthand, those sales have dried up since China imposed a 25 percent retaliatory tariff on American soybeans, as well as a host of other U.S. ag exports in July. The E.U. figures show that U.S. farmers have replaced Brazil as the top supplier for Europe. That comes as Brazil has replaced the U.S. as the top soybean supplier to China.

White House Economic Trade Adviser Kevin Hassett says the U.S. is getting very close to having to move forward on its trade deal with Mexico without Canada. The deadline to publish the text of an agreement to update the North American Free Trade Agreement is October first. As the deadline approaches, Hassett says the U.S. and Canada haven’t agreed to a deal. “We’re still talking to Canada,” Hassett says, “but we’re getting very, very close to the deadline where we’re going to have to move ahead with Mexico all by itself.” Hassett, who chairs the White House Council of Economic Advisers, says he’s surprised that Canada hasn’t signed an agreement yet. “I worry that politics is trumping common sense because there’s a very good deal in place that was designed by both Mexico and the U.S. to appeal to Canada,” he says. “They’re not signing on to the deal and its got everyone puzzled.” Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s Foreign Minister, left Washington last Thursday with no deal in place.

The Environmental Protection Agency released aggregated information on small-refinery exemptions to the Renewable Fuels Standard the agency issued over the last couple of years. A DTN report says they’ve also given out information on current and future waiver requests. The agency says it granted 49 waivers in 2016 and 2017. Those waivers added up to 2.25 billion gallons in biofuels, which negatively affected roughly 800 million bushels of corn demand. Because of those waivers, the National Biodiesel Board says that amounted to a loss of 300 million gallons of biofuels. In a statement issued last week, Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler says, “Increasing transparency will improve implementation of the RFS and provide stakeholders and the regulated community with the certainty and clarity they need to make important business and compliance decisions.” Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says he hopes making this information public will be beneficial for both the biofuels and agriculture markets. EPA says it will also post the latest Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN) weekly average prices as well as the volume of RINs sold. Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor says her group still has questions about how the EPA will resolve the issue of the lost gallons of biofuels.

The world’s largest agribusiness is predicting the Environmental Protection Agency will decide soon on the future of dicamba. Bayer expects the EPA to issue a renewal and an updated license for the product in the weeks ahead. Liam Condon, President of the Crop Science Division at Bayer, says, “The EPA wants to make a decision before the next growing season so that growers have certainty.” The weed system was first authorized by the EPA for a two-year period, which ends in November. The agency is currently deciding on whether the product should continue to be used and if there should be changes in how and when it could be used. Following a large number of volatility and drift complaints last year, Bayer says those numbers are lower in 2018, thanks to mandatory training and spraying restrictions. Bayer says there were 99 complaints per every million acres of seed last year. The company says that number was down to 13 complaints per million acres of seed in 2018. Bayer estimates dicamba-tolerant crops covered 50 million acres this year and predicts that number will only get larger in 2019.

India and the United States are currently in negotiations on a trade package. Reuters says Washington and New Delhi are looking to remove some long-standing disagreements between the two countries that would strengthen ties. Initial reports say it looks like Indian farmers and U.S. medical device manufacturers could be some of the early winners in the deal. The two countries have been going back-and-forth on steel tariffs, as well as duties on agricultural products. The two sides began talks in June. India is unhappy with U.S. steel tariffs and the U.S. has problems with a tariff on imported IT equipment. A source with knowledge of the negotiations tells Reuters, “We are closely negotiating a discreet package of trade issues and it will amount to a pretty substantive agreement.” The source says both sides expect the negotiations to wrap up within a few weeks. U.S. President Donald Trump recently said India came to the United States to “start doing a trade deal.” However, he didn’t provide a lot of specifics about the potential agreement.

Talks between Canada and the U.S. regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement are intensifying in Washington, D.C. Bloomberg says Canadian dairy farmers recently told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau not to use access to the protected Canadian dairy market as a bargaining chip. The Dairy Farmers of Canada says it’s already lost $193 million because of past trade agreements and they won’t accept more losses. “The work of our lives seems to have been reduced to a bargaining chip,” says Dairy Farmers of Canada president Pierre Lampron. The group, along with the Dairy Producers of Manitoba, says farmers will hold Trudeau accountable for his promise to defend the supply-management system. The threat may have added strength because of Canadian national elections which come in about a year. They say Canada’s market is too small to accommodate U.S. overproduction, saying the Class Seven milk targeted by President Donald Trump iså worth protecting. Both groups issued a statement saying, “We will hold our prime minister accountable for saying he will defend supply management and dairy in the NAFTA negotiations. We have articulated clearly that the support means no access will be given to the Canadian dairy market.”