Agri-Pulse Daybreak for April 1, 2016
The Nuclear Security Summit wraps up in Washington today. During a
joint appearance with President Obama yesterday, Chinese President Xi Jinxing
sought to emphasize that China wanted to work together with the United States
to address economic and trade issues among others.
Xi, who is no doubt paying attention to the China bashing in the U.S.
presidential campaign, said it’s a priority for Chinese foreign policy to build
what he called a “new model of major country relations” that would ensure
“win-win cooperation” for both countries.
Trudeau trying to sell TPP at home. Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau, who also is in town for the nuclear summit, said during an appearance
at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that he’s trying to address domestic concerns
about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “There are a lot of people in favor of it.
There are a few who have real concerns,” Trudeau said. He promised “to engage
in a substantive and reflective way with Canadians on the best way to move
forward.”
He showed no interest in renegotiating the North American Free Trade
Agreement, which has been a frequent target in the presidential campaign
because of job losses to Mexico. “As we all know, as soon as you crack open a
deal for one little thing the whole thing can start to unravel,” he said.
Republican voters wary of trade. This is no April Fool’s joke: A
new poll indicates that there is more skepticism about trade policy among
Republicans right now than there is among Democrats.
According to the Pew
Research Center survey, nearly half of Republican or Republican-leaning
registered voters believe that trade has hurt their family finances Just 36
percent of GOP voters think trade has helped them. For Democrats, the results
are reversed, 48 percent say trade has helped them, while 32 percent who say
they’ve been harmed.
It should be no surprise that the Republican skepticism about trade is
heavily driven by Donald Trump’s supporters. Sixty percent of them say free
trade agreements have definitely or probably hurt their family’s finances
compared to 36 percent of Ted Cruz’ supporters.
Just as noteworthy is that a large plurality, 46 percent, of Bernie
Sanders supporters believe trade has actually helped them. That’s despite
Sanders’ relentless criticism of U.S. trade policy.
The numbers should raise some red flags for supporters of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership. Republican lawmakers who are concerned about keeping
the support of Trump supporters will be hard-pressed not to notice the way his
anti-trade message has resonated with primary voters. And while Democratic
voters may have a relatively positive view of trade, that outlook isn’t shared
by the labor unions that provide critical support for Democratic campaigns.
Vilsack heads to Europe. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will be
back on the road next week, this time to Berlin and Paris. He’ll be in Berlin
Monday and Tuesday to meet with his German counterpart and other officials.
Vilsack plans to talk up the potential benefits of a U.S.-EU trade agreement.
On Thursday and Friday in Paris, Vilsack will co-chair an OECD conference of
agriculture ministers.
Religious protections for aid programs finalized. The Obama
administration has finalized regulations to
ensure that religious organizations can participate in federal assistance
programs and to protect the rights of beneficiaries. The new regulations will
bring consistency to practices that have varied among agencies such as USDA and
the U.S. Agency for International Development.
One of the issues that had to be settled is whether religious
organizations that accept SNAP benefits had to provide written warning to
recipients who objected to the religious nature of the program. The
administration decided the notices were unnecessary. A quarter million stores,
farmers’ markets, treatment centers, group homes and other facilities that accept
SNAP benefits could have been affected, according to the final rule.
She said it. “There’s junk science, as there’s junk stuff in every
field, and what we have to keep going back to is what’s the weight of the
evidence -- mindful of the fact that today’s evidence may be different from
tomorrow’s. That’s the progress of science.” Nina Fedoroff, science adviser to
Secretary of States Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice and a former president
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at a forum on media
reporting on GMOs and other issues.
#30
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