Trade

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The House is still on track to vote on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement next week, but several Republican senators are complaining that they won’t have a say in the process like they are meant to under the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) law.

President Donald Trump remains resolute that China commit to specific promises on amounts of U.S. ag commodities that it would buy as part of a trade pact, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue said Wednesday.

The U.S. agriculture sector — from pork producers to vegetable farmers — is relishing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s agreement to a deal on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but farm groups won’t be satisfied until the House and Senate ratify the trade pact.

Agricultural policy has seldom received as much attention as it has in this presidential campaign as Democrats vie for ways to cut into President Donald Trump’s rural base and win Iowa’s first-in-the-nation’s caucuses amid heightened anxiety about the farm economy.

There’s no immediate relief in sight for American farmers, as corn stocks remain large and increased demand for U.S. crops remains elusive, ag economist Dan Basse of AgResource told attendees of the American Seed Trade Association conference in Chicago Tuesday.

Brazil’s soybean harvest will be coming in a little later than normal this season, but farmers are expected to have a bumper crop.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders gave the green light on Tuesday to a revised U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and, according to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, a floor vote on the new North American pact could get a floor vote next week.

The Trump administration on Monday moved closer to getting a deal for its renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement as pressure increases from lawmakers and farm groups for a year-end ratification vote.

A proposal for a deal on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement has been sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after top U.S. and Mexican negotiators met again Saturday in Washington, according to a Bloomberg report.