opinion

Iowa corn farmers tell Trump: 'Don't withdraw from NAFTA'

As a farmer, you learn to weather storms, both literally and figuratively, but one storm we cannot endure would be the loss of our export markets. Trade policy significantly impacts Iowa’s farmers.

In 2017, we contended with low commodity prices, a drought across half the state, and the fourth year of farm incomes dropping below the cost of production.

We need a brighter 2018, and this starts with trade. We face increasing global competition for our agricultural exports. With the benefit of free trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), we have worked for decades to build these markets. Now, U.S. agricultural exports have grown to contribute $303 billion of economic output in 2015, including $130 billion in export value, and another $169 billion in other economic activity. Ag exports provide 1,067,000 full-time jobs, which included 751,000 non-farm jobs.

The fate of our future access to these markets now rests in the hands of the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and President Trump to renegotiate NAFTA. NAFTA has been a landmark trade success story for U.S. agriculture for more than 20 years, especially for U.S. grains. Over the last two decades, U.S. ag exports to Canada have tripled and exports to Mexico have quintupled, helping support the price of our products.

Should the U.S withdraw from NAFTA, it would surely result in immediate harm to corn growers. Our competitors would seize our share of key markets, which we almost certainly would never get back. Withdrawing would cost us thousands of jobs across the agriculture sector and our economy would suffer with the U.S. GDP falling by $13 billion.

We already feel ramifications from a potential NAFTA withdrawal. Importers in Mexico have begun seeking an alternate plan to U.S. corn imports, with some stating they no longer consider the U.S. a reliable supplier. With another record corn crop in 2017, it’s incomprehensible that we would cede any market. The impact on corn prices would be devastating, with no existing safety net able to mitigate the damage.

The Iowa Corn Growers Association and Iowa Corn Promotion Board exist to build domestic and export markets, so farmers don’t have to rely on a government program safety net. That's something we have successfully done.

Because ag exports remain vital to our nation’s economy, Congress allocates funds in each Farm Bill for two federal ag export programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) Program. These federal dollars are matched by private and public partnership dollars through organizations such as the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. Together, those funds support agriculture export organizations like the U.S. Grains Council and U.S. Meat Export Federation. These organizations employ staff around the world to build and defend U.S. market share of red meat, corn, distiller’s dried grains and ethanol. This contributes almost $200 billion to our country’s overall GDP. ICGA urges Congress to increase MAP and FMD funds to help move our surplus of corn.

Iowa corn farmers want to serve this important international customer base and further expand our export opportunities. We must persuade the president and his administration to renegotiate NAFTA without losing access to our international customers and risking our livelihoods.

Mark Recker of Arlington is the president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association.



