Trump Administration Officials Mum on Mexico's Plan to Buy US Ag Goods

Two top Trump administration agricultural officials said “substantial and immediate purchases” of U.S. agricultural goods are hinging on several current trade deals, but said they haven’t been told of any plan by Mexico to “immediately” purchase large amounts of U.S. agricultural goods, as President Donald Trump alluded to in a June 8 tweet.

In the tweet, Trump said Mexico will “immediately begin buying large quantities” of agricultural products from U.S. farmers. Speaking on June 13 at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, two administration officials said they had no information about the purchase. “We’re waiting to hear the specifics on that,” said Ted McKinney, under secretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The discussion on the potential purchase was part of a wide-ranging hearing in which Republican and Democratic senators aired concerns and grievances with the Trump administration's approach to trade and the losses being faced by U.S. exporters. Some senators said their constituents were worried the administration's tariff wars are hurting exporters beyond repair and expressed skepticism about the future availability of foreign markets.

But while the senators said U.S. farmers want the trade battles to end, both McKinney and Gregg Doud, chief agricultural negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, insisted many exporters are willing to suffer the short-term losses for some “long-term benefits.” “President Trump no doubt has taken tough, but we believe necessary, steps to confront China’s unfair trade practices,” McKinney said. “We hear from our U.S. farmers and ranchers that they’re willing to take that short-term pain to see return on some gains.”

Doud said “an important element” of the administration's negotiations with China has been to remove barriers to U.S. exports. “If we are able to have an acceptable agreement,” Doud said, “President Trump expects substantial and immediate purchases of U.S. agricultural products.” McKinney said the administration also has been pursuing efforts to diversify U.S. export markets, with Doud adding that both the USDA and the USTR created a list of more than 30 countries in which they’re hoping to develop deeper U.S. export access. “I hope we’re setting the stage so that we can look back in hopefully a few years and be glad that we have diversified the portfolio,” McKinney said.

Several senators said a few years may be too late, and that dwindling market access and low prices are dealing sharp blows to farmers and producers. “I don’t know how long this goes on. It may be seven years with low prices,” said committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan. “Some farmers aren’t gonna make it.”

Doud declined to give a timeline for completed trade deals with both China and Japan. He said Trump plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this month, calling the meeting “our next line of demarcation here to see how this is going to go.”

Ranking member Debbbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said the trade deals need to be completed as soon as possible. She said some losses to U.S. exporters in Michigan have been too much to overcome, adding that the state “lost 230 dairy farms last year” because they “suddenly faced retaliatory tariffs in some of our most important export markets.” She also said Michigan’s auto industry lost European markets due to tariffs and said Mexican buyers are now looking for sellers elsewhere because “they view the U.S. as an unreliable supplier.” She said she is concerned about “lasting harm,” specifically that a “short-term trade disruption” will create a “permanent loss in market share for” U.S. exporters. “They want a thoughtful strategy they can trust,” Stabenow said of U.S. exporters, “not haphazard proposals announced by tweet.”