Trade

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The Senate overwhelmingly passed the Trump administration’s revision of the North American trade pact with Canada and Mexico, sending the deal to the White House where the president has said he may sign it in a grand ceremony next week.

China has committed to buy at least $80 billion in U.S. farm products over the next two years and the country also agreed to sweeping structural changes that promise to improve trade on a more permanent basis for U.S. beef, pork, rice, corn, wheat, soybeans and other commodities.

The Trump administration has released details of the U.S.-China "phase one" trade agreement and the commitments that the Chinese are making to increase purchasing of American farm commodities.

The dramatic increase in purchasing of U.S. farm products that China has agreed to will be spread among a wide range of commodities and sectors, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue tells Agri-Pulse. 

Outside of exchanges on trade and climate change, farm issues largely played a minor role in the CNN-Des Moines Register debate, held on Tuesday at Drake University in Iowa’s capital city. 

The WTO’s appellate body — key to resolving disputes among its 164 member nations — ceased to function about a month ago, indefinitely putting key cases on hold that the U.S. ag sector would like to see settled.

A court challenge to U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs that resulted in a series of retaliatory taxes on U.S. farm exports is advancing and at least one farmer is joining the fight.

The Senate will likely clear the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement this week, ahead of an impeachment trial for President Donald Trump, says Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

President Donald Trump will keynote the American Farm Bureau’s annual convention Sunday in Austin, Texas, on the heels of the signing of a partial trade agreement with China, Agri-Pulse has learned.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is set to sign a landmark, partial trade deal in Washington this week that could be crucial to reviving a farm economy that has been dependent on an infusion of government payments to offset the damage from the U.S.-China trade war.